LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

Chap._jb_._ Copyright No. 

Shelf ji§1_S. ^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



^>y. 



FERTILIZERS. 



WHERE THE MATERIAL* COMES FROM. 



WHERE TO GET THEM IN THE CHEAPEST FORM. 



HOW TO COMPOUND FORMULAS, ETC., ETC. 



BY 

J. J. H. GREGORY, A.M., 

AUTHOR OP WORKS ON CABBAGE-RAISING, ONION-RAISING, SQUASH-RAISING, ETC. 



BOSTON: 
PRESS OF RAND, AVERY, & COMPANY. 

1885. 



Copyright, 1885, 
By J. J. H. GREGORY. 



.J UN 10 1885 



FERTILIZERS. 



WHERE THE MATERIAL COMES FROM. 



WHERE TO GET THEM IN THE CHEAPEST FORM. 



HOW TO COMPOUND FORMULAS, ETC., ETC. 



BY 



J. J. H. GREGORY, A.M., 

AUTHOR OF WOBK8 ON CABBAGE-KAISING, ONION-RAISING, SQUASH-RAISING, ETC. 



f 



BOSTON: 
PRESS OF RAND, AVERY, & COMPANY. 

1885. 



COPYBIGHT, 1885, 

By J. J. H. GREGORY. 



PREFACE. 



This treatise is by a farmer for farmers. Using forty 
or fifty tons of commercial fertilizers on my own crops 
annually, I have been compelled to "book myself up," as 
the phrase is, — to learn the cheapest market in which to 
buy the elements, the best way to combine these, and the 
wisest way to apply them to the different crops of the farm. 
This treatise is the result of the study of various works 
on agricultural chemistry, especially the excellent reports 
that have been sent out from our agricultural stations 
by Professors Johnson and Atwater, Goessmann, Dabney, 
Caldwell, and others, to whom our sense of indebtedness 
will be measured by the growth of our intelligence. This 
study, combined with personal observation and experience, 
makes up my little book. My treatise is not a work on 
barn manure : it is confined, for the most part, to fertilizers. 
It can perform no miracles : to ask that it shall show every 
one the road to success in the profitable raising of his 
crops would be as reasonable as was the search of the 
alchemist of old for the wonderful alembic that was to 
transmute every thing to gold. The whole matter of soil 



in 



IV PBEFACE. 

action and plant-growth is wonderfully complex ; and so 
far from the old axiom being true, that any man can be 
a farmer, we find that farming, in the problems it presents 
for solution, is a calling that challenges the best ability 
and the best culture to be found among men. To give a 
history of the three principal elements which enter into 
the composition of fertilizers, to discuss their relations to 
plant-growth in the various forms in which they exist, to 
tell in what form and where they may be obtained at the 
lowest rates, to tell how they may be combined and 
applied in the wisest way, brother farmers, is the object 
of this treatise. Should it prove desirable to enlarge the 
subject, I may take up barn and various other manures in 
another work. 

To those who desire to study the subject of plants and 
plant-growth more extensively, I would recommend such 
excellent works as " How Crops Grow " and " How Crops 
Feed," by Professor Johnson ; " Botanical Text-Book," by 
Professor Grey ; and " Harris on Manures." 



FERTILIZERS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Chemists tell us that water, and this air around us, that 
we can neither see nor grasp, and which in all our every- 
day calculations of space we take no account of, make up 
from eighty-eight to ninety-nine per cent of our crops, our 
trees, or any form of vegetable growth. Practically, we 
know this is so ; for we can bring out in a bushel-basket 
all the ashes made from a load of wood that it might take 
a couple of yoke of oxen to draw in. A wood cord is about 
one hundred bushels ; in the ashes which contain the min- 
erals that entered into the make-up of that wood, we get 
not more than two per cent of this. The great remainder, 
after yielding that heat which the sun has fed to it for, it 
may be, a hundred years, in the form of vapor and gases 
hurries up the chimney, to return to mother-air, from 
whence they came. Plant-life builds up the mighty tree, 
borrowing almost nothing from the soil. It is the weight 
of the air and the water present in its structure that our 
oxen strain under when hauling to mill the trunk of some 
huge veteran of the forest. All that it has taken from 
the soil to make up its huge bulk the driver might carry 
in a bag on his shoulder, and then have to go some distance 
to get an appetite for breakfast. In brief, to express it in 



2 FERTILIZERS. 

a familiar way, soil does but little more than help plants 
stand upright; while water and air, obeying chemical 
laws, build up their structure. And what is soil ? It- is 
the result of the destruction of the rocks mingled with 
vegetable waste ; it is the turning of all life, organic and 
inorganic, into its original elements ; it is the great grave- 
yard of creation ; it is the great mine of the world, out 
from which come the food of all animal and vegetable 
life, the wherewithal they shall be clothed, the means of 
shelter and protection from heat, cold, and wet ; it is 
Mother Earth, from whom all organized life springs, and 
to whom, after completing its little round, all matter that 
enters therein returns, to repose a while within her bosom, 
there to rest and refresh itself before entering into new 
forms, and running another course of vitality. 

" The earth is my mother," said Red Jacket, the Indian 
orator, at the Great Council, declining a chair offered him : 
" I w r ill rest upon her bosom." Yes, she is the material 
mother of all organized, life ; and, when their course is 
ended, all her children go home to her. 

The giant of the forest may span his thousand years 
of time, and, towering upward a hundred feet above his 
fellows, may seem to despise his humble origin ; but his 
mother is patiently waiting for him : and, hoary with 
years, worn and weary, seeking rest, he bows his lofty 
head, falls upon her breast, and receives her final embrace. 
Man himself, standing at the head of all organized life, 
in sleep, imago mortis, reclines by instinct on her bosom ; 
and, when comes the final hour, his material self by loving 
hands is gently lowered into her yearning care, " dust unto 
dust." If any man could really believe that this is the 
final end, he would that instant die of horror, or become 
insane. The cheer that every good deed leaves in our 
hearts is full of the instinct of immortality. 



FERTILIZERS. 3 

If- we give the bushel of ashes into the hands of the 
chemist, to tell us what it is made of, he will return us 
silicon, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, alumin- 
ium, sulphur, iron, chlorine, magnesium. These are the 
elements that all plants take from the soil. The soil itself 
obtained them originally from the ledges of solid rock, 
which through eons of years have been slowly disinte- 
grating and decomposing. Geology tells us, that, by the 
action of the drift waves of ancient eras, mountains of 
water six thousand feet or more in height swept from the 
north, breaking down, filling up, and smoothing off, the 
ragged, craggy surface of the ancient lava-covered earth ; 
by later glacial action, and that of water and frost, which 
extend into the human period, the rocks have been ground 
up, and scattered over a large portion of the surface of 
our planet in gravell} r hills and plains, covered more or 
less by vegetable matter, through which protrude, in places, 
the rocky ribs of the ancient earth. This soil is but a 
sprinkling on the surface of our globe. At a depth of but 
a few hundred feet, at the utmost, on any spot of its mil- 
lions of miles of surface, we would strike rock, solid to 
the great lava centres. 

The principal ledges from which have come originally 
the mineral matter of the soil, are of the granite class. 
These yield the minerals felspar, mica, hornblende, and 
quartz ; and they, the silicon, potash, iron, alumina, soda, 
lime, and manganese. The sedimentary rocks, of which the 
various slates are a type, have the particles in a finer form 
than they exist in the parent primary rocks ; and hence the 
soils formed from these, such as the clays, have the mineral 
constituents in a finer condition. But the finest subdivis- 
ion of all, in which the mineral matter of the soil exists, 
is that supplied by dead plants and animal life, into whose 
structure the minerals entered in so fine a state as to be 
held in solution by water. 



4 FERTILIZERS. 

In felspar and mica we have the great natural store- 
houses of potash ; the former containing seventeen per 
cent, and the latter nine per cent. It has been estimated 
from tests on a small scale, that, in soils from granite 
taken to the depth of twenty inches on an acre of land, 
the potash from the felspar alone is over one million two 
hundred thousand pounds. What this means may be in- 
ferred when we consider that it has been computed that 
two cubic feet of felspar contains sufficient potash to 
supply the wants of an acre of young oaks for five years. 

Not only is the soil of the earth to be supplied with 
mineral matter, but the ocean also, to enable her to furnish 
food for her many forms of marine life, both animal and 
vegetable. Water, percolating through the soil, with the 
help of the carbonic acid it holds in solution, which it has 
derived mostly from the air, dissolves an inflnitesimally 
small portion of mineral ingredients, and carries them to 
the streams and rivers ; and these run on, with their invisi- 
ble freight of soda, potash, chlorine, and other minerals, to 
the ocean. Here, nothing but water being evaporated, the 
mineral strength increases ; and in the kelps, sea-mosses, 
rock-weed, and eel-grass which we gather along the shore, 
and carry back on the land to manure our farms, or in 
the waste fish we handle, we find the identical mammal 
elements that exist in the various land plants which we 
feed to our animals. And we find, moreover, that these 
elements are about equally well proportioned for plant- 
food. 

The rocks of the little State of Massachusetts have 
locked up in them, it is safe to say, all the potash, the sili- 
con, the iron, the alumina, the soda, necessary to supply 
the population of the whole earth, from now to the end of 
time, with all of these ingredients that enter into their 
daily food, provided they were made soluble, and w r ere 



FERTILIZERS. 5 

•not wasted. The soil of Massachusetts could doubtless 
grow food sufficient to feed a population of a million and 
a half of inhabitants, without a spoonful of manure being 
needed beyond her own natural resources, and continue to 
do this through all time, could, from the beginning, all ex- 
cremental waste made from the consumption of such food 
have been returned to it. We say that soil is an accumu- 
lation of broken rock, decomposed minerals, and disor- 
ganized organic matter, the waste of Nature's workshop, — 
a dead mass. And so it is, from the organic stand-point. 

But there is a chemical as well as an organic life.; and 
from this stand-point, in the loam we turn with the plough, 
apparently so inert and dead, there is a life of unceasing 
activity throughout the growing season, which rests only 
when paralyzed by the frosts of winter. So complicated 
is it in its action and re-action, its marriages and divorces, 
in utter disregard of all moral laws in seeking its affini- 
ties, that it presents some of the most complicated prob- 
lems to be found in physical science. The utmost that 
has been attained is the possible and probable. The man 
who could tell the world exactly the composition of a rod 
of ground, and the daily changes that took place in it 
during the growing season, and how these affect the ma- 
nures applied, and hew they affect it, and how the results 
of these actions and re-actions affect the growing crop, 
would take his place among the immortals without a dis- 
senting voice from among his fellow-men. 

Chemical action is mineral instinct, or, more accurately, 
a demonstration of the existence of such instinct. 

Higher than mineral instinct stands plant-life. Plants 
have more than life, they have intelligent volition. Plant- 
life builds up the structure ; while plant instinct, active at 
the little spongioles, dissolves from the rocks, or selects 
from the soil, with unerring accuracy, the materials needed. 



6 FERTILIZERS. 

The order in creation, then, is, that the rocks supply the 
minerals ; plants feed on these minerals ; animals feed on 
these plants ; while omnivorous man, lord of all, feeds on 
both minerals and plants. 

Chemists have settled the fact that most of the dozen 
elements that enter into the composition of plants are 
found in sufficient quantity in almost all soils, leaving but 
potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid as the three essen- 
tials, more or less of each of which, as a general rule, we 
farmers must supply to the soil if we plant for a crop ; 
though on some soils, such as muck meadows, lime and 
silicon in some form may be necessary adjuncts. We pro- 
pose to discuss these, and the sources from which they are 
obtained. 

Before taking up in detail the three essential elements 
of plant-food, let us here discuss the difference that is 
assumed to exist between them as they exist in barn 
manure and commercial fertilizers. 

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BARN MANURE AND 
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS ? 

All plant-food is manure ; and all manure is plant-food, 
whether it is in the form of the artificial products, — which 
are known among farmers as "artificial manures," "chemi- 
cal fertilizers," — or is the natural product of the barn 
yard : and the feeding value of each is measured in the same 
way ; viz., by the quantity they contain of the three essen- 
tial elements, viz., nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid, 
and the digestible condition in which these elements exist. 
The great bugbear dealers in fertilizers have to contend 
with in dealing with ns farmers is, the deeply rooted belief 
that the only real manure is that which comes out of the 
barnyard, and that all other forms in which it is presented 
are mere makeshifts. 



FERTILIZERS. 7 

Where do the fertilizing elements in barn manure come 
from ? From the food animals eat. But do all the fertiliz- 
ing elements in the food find their way to the manure ? 
Certainly not ; a portion of them are used to promote the 
growth of the animal, going into its flesh and bones. Is 
there not, then, in the body of the animal, which has in it 
a part of the fertilizing elements contained in the food, 
plant-food also, as well as in the manure that passes 
through it ? Every farmer will assent to this. As it has 
less water and waste in its composition than the manure 
itself, is it not more concentrated plant-food? Now, it 
is these bones, blood, flesh, and other waste that are used 
in fertilizers as one of the principal sources for ammonia 
and phosphoric acid, — ammonia in the dried blood and 
flesh, and phosphoric acid in the bones, — to carry back to 
earth the plant-food received from it. What is the differ- 
ence, then, between using the manure of an animal as 
plant-food, and using the animal himself as plant-food? 
Simply, that we get more water and waste in the one case 
than in the other. 

Go into the fields, and study the crops of the Great 
Farmer of the universe. From the majestic Sequoia, that 
tower toward high heaven, even to the tiny hyssop, that 
creepeth on the wall, observe the green mantle of his 
mighty domain thrown over the mountains that span a con- 
tinent, and trailing along their thousand valleys, contrast- 
ing, in its vast amplitude, with the patches of soil on which 
dwell nations, covering every latitude and enveloping all 
continents in its mighty folds up to the great icy circles. 
How does the Great Farmer raise his crops? Take your 
spade, and dig down into the soil. Do you find any bam 
manure there ? Go out on the boundless prairies of the far 
West, "where bounteous nature only, tills the willing soil." 
Do you find any barn manure there ? Thev waved their 

%J %J *J 



8 FERTILIZERS. 

oceans of verdure thousands of years before the human 
era. Enter the limitless woods, and ask the giant pines 
for the secret of their towering robustness. Was it barn 
manure ? 

Says Bruckner, " Farmers, accustomed to think of ma- 
nure as a bulky article, want bulk for their money. They 
are slow to realize that a little of the substance needed is 
better than a good deal that is not needed." 

I will say, at the outset, that this little treatise is not 
designed to be a tilt against barnyard manure : that will 
always have its place in agriculture, as I find, myself, in 
the great quantities I use annually in my own farming 
operations. But I would like to see the circulars of some 
of the dealers in fertilizers take a little bolder stand, and 
not say, that, after we have used all our barn manure, then 
comes the time to buy fertilizers, but to declare that there 
are crops which can be raised decidedly cheaper on fertil- 
izers, besides ripening earlier (as corn), and being of 
better quality (as potatoes), and that it would always be 
decidedly better to use a part or all of fertilizers on such 
crops, and give what manure we have remaining to the 
acres of grass-lands that would be fertilized by it on every 
farm. I contend for a broad handling of this subject of 
plant-food, and a recognition of the true value of it in 
every form in which it exists. 

WHAT IS BARNYARD MANURE? 

I took a little of it, fresh from the horse-stall, and dried 
all the water out of it on the hearth, and was surprised at 
the result. On breaking it up fine, all I could find, by the 
closest scrutiny with the naked eye, was a mass of bits of 
hay, ranging from a third of an inch long to so small as to 
be barely visible , and I will defy any one with the naked 
eye to find any thing else. Many of the fragments of the 



FERTILIZERS. 



9 



hay had suffered so little change, that they yet shone 
in the light. The whole mass had a yellowish color, and 
smelt as manure smells ; but the puzzle was, to find any 
thing- in it that could be called manure. There were frasr- 
ments of hay, a slight color, and nothing else. Now, 
where was the plant-food in it? The potash, ammonia, 
and phosphoric acid evidently must have been hidden 
among, or soaked into, the fragments of hay. I found, by 
weighing it before and after it had dried, that it lost 
seven-tenths of its original weight ; in other words, seven- 
tenths of its weight was water. Now, fresh barnyard 
manure has been analyzed, and found to contain the 
following kind and quantity of elements : — 



Water .... 

Nitrogen 

Silica and insoluble matter 

Alumina and oxide of iron 

Lime . 

Potash 

Soda . 

Phosphoric acid 

Chlorine 



71.3 
0.5 

10.5 
0.7 
0.5 
0.4 
0.1 
0.5 
0.1 



Now, taking a cord of average stable manure, which 
will average in weight about 4,500 pounds, we should 
have in it 3,208 pounds of water, 22^ pounds of nitrogen, 
72| pounds of silica, 31J pounds of alumina and iron, 
22J pounds of lime, 13^ pounds of magnesia, 18 pounds of 
potash, 4^ pounds of soda, 4i pounds of sulphuric acid, 
22^ pounds of phosphoric acid, and 4| pounds of chlorine. 
Taking a common one-horse load of two cord-feet, and it 
would contain, of water, 802 pounds ; of nitrogen, about 5£ 
pounds ; silica, about 18 pounds ; of alumina, 6i pounds ; 
lime, 3J pounds ; magnesia, 3£ pounds ; potash, 4^ pounds ; 



10 FERTILIZERS. 

soda, 1 pound ; sulphuric acid, 1 pound ; phosphoric acid, 
5^ pounds ; chlorine, 1 pound. 

Now, while you are urging on the faithful old horse, 
sweating and tugging at his load through the mud, into 
the soft ploughed ground, where the wheels sink nearly 
to the hubs, put on your thinking-cap, and consider that 
in that load you are teaming 802 pounds of water on your 
land ; and what in the world do we want to do that for, 
with the ground already so wet that we don't dare stick a 
plough into it, and are waiting anxiously for the sun to 
look out with power, and dry it up ? You are teaming 14 
pounds of silica, which is another name for sand, — carrying 
coals to Newcastle ; for, nine cases out of ten, the soil has 
already a good deal more sand in its composition than you 
want there. Of the iron, lime, soda, and chlorine, already, 
as a rule, the soil has all it needs ; leaving but the nitrogen, 
the potash, and the phosphoric acid as the only parts of 
the big load that are really needed by the crop, no matter 
what that is to be. And the 5i pounds of nitrogen, as far 
as weight goes, would not be a heavy load for one coat- 
pocket, nor the 5^ pounds of phosphoric acid for another, 
nor the 4i pounds of potash for the third. However, there 
is a little of fiction in this ; for though it is literally true that 
all there is of value in that horse-load of manure for the pro- 
duction of whatever crop you intend to plant, is the nitro- 
gen, potash, and phosphoric acid, which altogethr weigh but 
15^ pounds, still, it is practically not possible to carry them 
to the field in a pure form : yet in the form of sulphate of 
ammonia for nitrogen, phosphate of lime from bones, and 
muriate of potash for potash, they would altogether weigh 
52 pounds, and might easily be carried in a bushel-basket, 
which they would but little more than half fill, and yet 
have in them all the manure value contained in that two 
feet of manure which the old horse is tugging at. 



FERTILIZERS. 11 

Why should we farmers insist upon it, that bulk is 
necessary in manure ? We do not so insist when we use 
ashes, lime, or plaster; but then, we look upon them — 
at least, the two latter — as agricultural miracles, though 
there is nothing miraculous about them. If bulk is so 
desirable in feeding crops, then why not, in feeding our- 
selves corn, eat stalk, cob, and husk ? or, with the kernel 
of wheat, eat the straw and husk which grew with it ? 
Just as the store of the apothecary, in the neat jars and 
phials on his long, narrow shelves, supplies us all that is 
really valuable in a mass of medicinal herbs that in their 
natural state would fill his shop solid full many times 
over, so in commercial fertilizers we find concentrated all 
that is valuable as plant-food in a mass of barn manure a 
hundred times as bulky. 

The objection sometimes urged against the use of fer- 
tilizers, that they do not leave so much food in the ground 
for the crop that follows, is, I consider, an argument for 
them. The plant-food in them is in so digestible a condi- 
tion, that the crop we plant can get about all of it : whereas, 
in using barn manure, the food is not all in such condition ; 
and to get the same result the first season, we must put 
on more manure than the crop would need, provided the 
ingredients became plant-food the same season. Fertilizers 
in some form can be made to last, like barn manure, and 
feed several successive crops with a single application, if it 
is desired. For instance, in ashes and bone we have all 
the three elements for a complete manure. Now apply an 
extra quantity of the ashes, and apply a portion of the 
bone in a coarse state. Ashes are alwa} r s enduring in 
their effect ; and the coarse bone will be years in decaying, 
and setting free nitrogen and phosphoric acid. 



12 FERTILIZERS. 



HUMUS. 

There is, however, a value in barn manure in addition 
to its fertilizing properties. Its bulk has a mechanical 
effect on the soil, improving heavy soils, and lightening 
the texture of all soils,. — a fact of especial value to market 
gardeners in their early crops. By its partial decomposi- 
tion, it adds to the mass of dark-brown earth which we 
so especially notice in old gardens, and which goes under 
the name of humus. Humus is dead vegetable and animal 
matter in process of decay. In the surface twelve inches 
of good soil, there is, in a latent condition, about fifteen 
hundred pounds of phosphoric acid, fifteen hundred pounds 
of potash, and seventeen hundred pounds of lime. Car- 
bonic acid changes these into plant-food. Now, humus, 
by its decay, develops carbonic acid, and so brings about 
the decomposition of this latent food. Wet weather favors 
this action. That carbonic acid has this power to set free 
plant-food in the soil, has been proved by the experiments 
of Professor Stockhardt. Our crops take up only a small 
portion of the fertilizers we apply before the nutrient sub- 
stances they contain become insoluble. The humus keeps 
them in a soluble condition, which is an argument for the 
use of barn manure, muck, or the ploughing-under of sod 
or green crops, in connection with the use of fertilizers. 
It acts as a sponge, to absorb and hold moisture in low, 
black soils, which are made up of dead vegetable matter 
in a state of semi-decay, halfway towards coal, — a carbo- 
naceous mass of stems, roots, and leaves. Burnt, it makes 
an ash-red, from the presence of iron, and having but one- 
sixth the potash to be found in hard-wood ashes. The 
trouble with the humus of soil of a mucky nature for till- 
age purposes is, that when dry it takes up water very 
slowly ; and it takes, therefore, a good deal of rain to 



FERTILIZERS. 13 

moisten it : while, on the other hand, when wet, it keeps 
wet and cold too long for the health of vegetation. With- 
out draining, manure is a waste on such soils. I once top- 
dressed such a meadow for two or three years, to get but 
wild dandelion, that was not worth the money. I deepened 
the outlet, and now can cut three good crops of grass from 
it every year. 

Humus holds a great store of carbonic acid ; which de- 
composes the minerals in the soil, setting free potash and 
phosphoric acid. It also holds latent nitrogen, sometimes 
as high as three per cent, which is six times as much as 
in average stable manure. This is made plant-food by the 
application of lime or carbonate of potash. It is the great 
argument for the use of barn manure in preference to 
commercial fertilizers, that it forms humus ; but we can 
gain the same end by turning under a grass or clover sod, 
cow-pease, or a green crop, and these we can raise by com- 
mercial fertilizers. 

Humus is not in itself plant-food. It is not necessary 
for the yield of heavy crops. 



ARE FERTILIZERS BUT STIMULANTS? 

The old-fashioned farmer is apt to look askance on this 
new-fangled fashion of manuring, call fertilizers "medi- 
cine, stimulants, " a sure way to run out the land. 

To continually apply but a single one of the three ele- 
ments which enter into the complete manure, and especially 
if that one should be nitrogen, and for a series of years be 
in marked excess of the other two, would in the end, sooner 
or later, prove that the old farmer was right in his conclu- 
sion, however faulty he might be in his reasoning. Let 
me here emphasize the fact repeatedly proved, and that 
squares with common sense ; viz., that the one of the three 



14 FERTILIZERS. 

elements, nitrogen, potash, or phosphoric acid, of which the 
soil has the least, will always be the measure of the crop. 

A hundred pounds of potash applied would not give a 
larger yield than five pounds (and so of the other two 
elements) if there is not a proportionate increase of the 
other elements. 

Says Professor Atwater, in his generalizations from over 
a hundred carefully studied experiments, " Either the com- 
bined testimony of these experiments, similar ones else- 
where, and the best experience, are totally false, or chemical 
fertilizers bring larger, better, and even surer crops than 
farm manure. . . . Artificial fertilizers rightly used must 
prove among the most potent means for the restoration of 
our agriculture." The professor makes this general rec- 
ommendation : " For general farming, at a distance from 
the large markets, the chief use of commercial fertilizers 
should be to supplement the manure of the farm. The 
right way is, to make the most and best manure that is 
practicable upon the farm, and piece out with such com- 
mercial fertilizers as experiments and experience prove 
profitable. At the same time, there are many cases, espe- 
cially near cities, where every thing depends on getting 
the largest and best (and earliest) yield, where the more 
exclusive use of chemical fertilizers is advisable.'' This 
is sound sense ; but I would modify it somewhat by advis- 
ing to use fertilizers on leachy soil in preference to barn 
manure, depending on occasional laying-down to grass to 
improve the texture of such soil. Also, as a rule, to de- 
pend on fertilizers for the vegetable and grain crops, and 
give the manure to the grass crop, ploughing under a good 
sward to enrich the land with humus, when the grass 
crop is as heavy as a ton to the acre, and not waiting till 
you can span between the blades. 

The celebrated experiments of Mr. Lawes of Rotham- 



FERTILIZERS. 15 

sted, Eng., when he raised wheat for twenty years in 
succession, depending wholly on chemical fertilizers, the 
same amount each year, with the results, that, where the 
first ten years the average was twenty-nine bushels per 
acre, the second ten the average was forty-one bushe ] s 
per acre, ought forever to settle the " stimulant and medi- 
cine " theory. Professor Atwater says, further, " That a 
great deal of successful farm experience goes to show that 
artificial fertilizers may take the place of farm manures, 
there is no question. The experience and experimenting 
that bear on this point are of too great accuracy, too long 
continuance, and too large amount, to be ignored, and the 
results too decisive to be derided. Nor is there in the 
results of the best scientific investigators any thing antago- 
nistic to the doctrine." 

To sum the matter up, the arguments for the use of fer- 
tilizers are, (1) As a rule, they cost considerably less to 
produce the same crop results. (2) They are much more 
cheaply transported; and, containing the fertilizing ele- 
ments in so condensed a form, the whole handling of them 
is much cheaper. (3) They supply plant-food in number- 
less instances where it could not otherwise be obtained, 
and so enable the farmer to cultivate much larger areas. 

(4) They ripen crops earlier, and so practically prolong 
the season, making the raising of some varieties possible 
when before their use they could not wisely be risked. 

(5) They improve the quality of potatoes and grain. (6) 
They virtually bring outlying fields nearer to the farm. 
(7) They have indirectly raised farmers to a higher intel- 
lectual level b} r stimulating them to acquire more infor- 
mation, and a clearer insight into the laws which govern 
plant-growth. (8) They lessen our crop of weeds, as, 
unlike barn manure, they carry with them no weed-seed 
into the soil. 



16 FERTILIZERS. 



POTASH. 

Potash is the element potassium combined with oxygen 
— " potassium oxide " it is called by the agricultural 
chemists. Potassium itself is but a curiosity of the labora- 
tory ; for it can be kept pure only by excluding all air, and 
is therefore only to be found in the bottle of the chemist. 
The name " potash " was given it because it was made in 
iron pots from ashes. 

In Canada and other primitive countries, in clearing the 
land, the trees having been felled, piled, and burnt, the 
ashes are collected, mixed with about one-twentieth of 
lime, and placed in half-barrels, with false bottoms perfo- 
rated with holes, and covered with straw. They are 
drenched with water ; and in an hour or two the water is 
drawn off into shallow iron pans, and evaporated. The 
crude potash obtained is purified by heat on the floor of a 
furnace, where most of the sulphur and water is driven 
off, making the pearl ash of commerce. 

Potash is a most caustic, biting alkali, dissolving and 
decomposing all organic structures it comes in contact 
with. It is one of the most powerful bases ; in other 
words, it is a vigorous, unprincipled chemical thief, seizing 
upon, and absorbing into itself, the acids it finds combined 
with various saline compounds. Pure water could not 
dissolve the potash as it exists in the particles of felspar 
and mica that are found in the soil ; but, taking carbonic 
acid from the air, it has the power of dissolving the sili- 
cate of potash, leaving the quartz and alumina to form the 
clays. Caustic lime also has this power. The silica, 
combined with the potash, preferring the lime, divorces 
itself from the potash, and, marrying the lime, sets the 
potash free. In the vegetable kingdom it is held by 
plants, while in the process of growth, in a soluble state, 



FERTILIZERS. 17 

combined with oxalic, tartaric, silicic, and sulphuric acids. 
When wood is burnt, these acids are decomposed; and, 
the potash combining with carbonic acid, we have the 
common form of carbonate of potash. Potash is not only 
one of the three essentials for all plant-growth, but it is 
also found in the fruits, vegetables, and grains. The 
grape, the apple, the potato, are illustrations. The ashes 
of bean and pea vines, the potato-vine, and beet-leaves, 
are especially rich in potash ; while corn-cobs and aspara- 
gus stalks yield an enormous proportion, though but a 
small amount compared with their bulk. The principal 
sources from which we obtain potash are, India, from 
which comes the nitrate of potash ; Germany, from which 
come the sulphates, muriates, kainite, kruget, etc. (all of 
them products of the famous Stassfurt deposit), wood 
ashes (which includes those from the brick-kiln and lime- 
kiln), burnt tan, logwood, etc., and a limited amount 
from the burnt hulls of cotton-seed. The potash in all 
these forms comes originally, as we have already stated, 
from the Creator's great storehouse, the felspar and mica 
bearing ledges, with the soils formed from their disintegra- 
tion and decomposition. From the nitrate of potash is 
made the saltpetre of commerce. Being costly, it is rarely 
used for agricultural purposes, though, to a limited extent, 
a waste product enters the market. 

The Stassfurt mines of Germany were originally opened 
for salt-mines ; and what was at first looked upon as a 
worthless waste, the wand of Chemistry pointed out as by 
far the most valuable product. These mines make, I am 
informed, the centre of a vast basin, many miles in diam- 
eter, which is believed to have been the bed of an ancient 
salt sea. The various salts, from their composition and 
the order of their formation, are believed by men of science 
to have resulted from the drying-up of this sea. The de- 



18 FERTILIZERS. 

posit appears to be inexhaustible in its extent. The gen- 
eral name given to the potash-bearing mass is carnallite, 
from the pinkish color which it bears. Most of the . prod- 
ucts marketed are made from the original material of the 
bed by chemical processes, which, as is common in old 
countries, are kept well-guarded secrets. It comes to this 
country in different grades of muriate, sulphate, and kai- 
nite. 

The chemists tell us that a high grade of muriate of 
potash contains about 80 per cent of muriate of potash, 
which is equal to 50 per cent of potassium oxide, or pure 
potash. A high grade of sulphate contains about 52 per 
cent of sulphate of potash, which is equal to about 28 per 
cent of pure potash, and 30 per cent of sulphate of mag- 
nesia, which is equal to 10 per cent of magnesium oxide. 
A high grade kainite contains about 30 per cent of sul- 
phate of potash (equal to about 14J per cent pure 
potash), 35 per cent of chloride of sodium (which is but 
another name for common salt), and 10 per cent of sul- 
phate of magnesia. It generally has also some chloride 
of magnesia. 

In buying these fertilizers, we farmers are apt to think 
we are getting more potash than they really contain. For 
instance, 80 per cent of muriate of potash is apt to be 
taken as meaning 80 per cent of potash, whereas it means 
80 per cent of potassium combined with chlorine. The 
quantity of potassium in the 80 per cent of pure muriate 
would make 50 per cent of the weight of what we buy in 
pure potash : and so on of each of them. Of wood ashes, 
we are told that a certain quantity contains 5 per cent of 
carbonate of potash. Now, carbonate of potash is not 
pure potash, but a combination of carbonic acid (a com- 
pound of carbon and oxygen) and potash ; about tAvo 
parts of the five being carbonic acid, leaving but three 



FERTILIZEKS. 19 

parts pure potash. The cost of the potash in these combi- 
nations varies somewhat from year to year, but, at their 
lowest figure thus far, may be set down at seven cents per 
pound for the potash in the combination of sulphate, and 
three and three-quarters to four and one-half in muriate and 
kainite. One reason why the sulphate bears a higher price 
is, because it is sold as a purer article, costing more to pro- 
duce, being especially freer from salt than either of the 
others. 

It has been found in reality, however, that much of 
the so-called sulphate is really mostly muriate. Both the 
muriate and kainite forms have salt in their composition, 
which is considered injurious in its effect on some crops, 
especially tobacco and potatoes ; affecting the quality of 
the leaf in the former, and, by decreasing the proportion of 
starch, tending to make potatoes watery. Because of the 
heavy per cent of salt, I have found it dangerous to apply 
kainite in the hill where small seed, such as cabbage, are to 
be planted : it is better to apply it around the plants just 
before their second hoeing. There is also the objection to 
kainite, that it sometimes comes not purified from the chlo- 
ride of magnesia, which is considered by agricultural 
chemists to be generally injurious to vegetation. Those 
forms of the salt containing sulphate of magnesia help 
diffuse the potash throughout the soil, carrying in down ; 
and hence such potash compounds (muriate oftentimes, 
and kainite generally) having it in their combinations are 
especially recommended for use when growing deep-rooting 
crops, such as clover, beets, etc. This combination has 
also another valuable characteristic, — its great power to 
absorb or " fix " ammonia, and so preventing its escape, 
being in this respect far superior to plaster. 

It also has a rare and remarkable power of gathering 
nitrogen from the air. A chemist experimented on several 



20 FERTILIZERS. 

heaps of barn dung which were kept for a year. In one of 
these, to which had been added 0.5 per cent of carbonate 
of lime, there was a loss of 9.78 per cent of the nitrogen. 
Where 1 per cent of plaster had been mixed with a heap, 
there was a loss of but 0.34 per cent ; where 1 per cent 
of sulphate of magnesia had been mixed, the heap was en- 
riched with 5.06 per cent of nitrogen ; while 1 per cent of 
kainite added 7.97 per cent, which must have come from, 
the air. For such reason as this, kainite becomes very val- 
uable to sprinkle in stables, or mix in manure heaps to 
both fix and absorb ammonia. That word, " fix," ammonia 
will bear a bit of defining ; and I will stop right here and 
define it, because it will be likely to be used again before 
we get through with our treatise. Ammonia in animal 
manure, especially the liquids, is more or less in the form 
of carbonate of ammonia. In this form it is volatile, and, 
escaping into the air, is lost. It is this that makes us sneeze 
when working over manure heaps. When in the form of 
a sulphate (i.e., sulphate of ammonia), though it can be dis- 
solved in water, yet it is not volatile. Now, sulphuric acid 
likes ammonia better than it likes magnesia, while carbonic 
acid likes magnesia better than it does ammonia : therefore, 
when sulphate of magnesia and carbonate of ammonia are 
brought near each other, there is a mutual divorce and a 
remarriage all around ; and, the new unions being more 
stable if not sedate, we have the non-volatile sulphate of 
ammonia and the carbonate of magnesia. 

There remains yet another hearty good word to speak 
for kainite. Says Professor Dabney, " Lime promotes the 
action of kainite to a very marked degree ; kainite is, by 
itself, frequently a proper application to swamp-lands and 
new lands, being also a powerful digestive agent." The 
action of kainite may be either a direct one, supplying pot- 
ash where potash is needed, or an indirect one, through the 



FERTILIZERS. 21 

agency of the secondary salts present, snch as common 
salt and sulphate of magnesia. These salts may promote 
the solution of all the plant-nourishing material in the soil ; 
hence the favorable action of kainite upon swamp-lands, newly 
cleared land, and all lands abounding in vegetable matter. 
They also benefit sandy soils by keeping them more moist. 
German agricultural writers advise to apply kainite in 
fall or winter, or the year previous, that the chlorides 
may be diluted and washed down, and so be made harm- 
less. They believe it is to be the foundation-rock of all 
improvement on swamp-lands, as it has already brought 
great blessings to the poor dwellers among the bogs and 
moors of North Germany. 

While plaster dissolves in four hundred and sixty times 
its weight of water, kainite dissolves in one and three- 
fourths its weight. Some fear is felt by our agricultural 
chemists that farmers are using too much of these varieties 
of potash having so large a per cent of salt in their com- 
position. There may be ground for this in its application 
to some crops. Five hundred pounds of kainite per acre 
would carry with it less than three bushels of salt, which, 
repeated for a series of years, might in the end prove hurt- 
ful to some of our crops : but much of this would pass off 
in the drainage of the soil ; while I have, by mistake, had 
as high as thirty bushels applied to an acre of onions in 
one year, with certainly no detriment to the crop. 

In his report for 1882, Professor Dabney of the North 
Carolina agricultural experiment station devotes twenty- 
two pages to kainite and its uses. " Kainite," he says, " is 
now an established specific against rust in cotton, and is 
undoubtedly of great value, in connection with phosphate 
and pease, as an improver of the soil." It appears that 
about all brought into Carolina is in the crude state, just 
as mined, costing five dollars rer 2,240 pounds at Stass- 
furt, and having an average composition of 



22 FERTILIZERS. 



Sulphate of potash . 
Sulphate of magnesia 
Chloride of magnesia 
Common salt 
Moisture 
Insoluble matter 



23.38 
16.76 
13.59 
32.11' 
13.40 
.73 



There is as much sulphuric acid in kainite as in sul- 
phate of lime, which is but another name for plaster or 
gypsum, all three being names of the same mineral. In 
some instances kainite has given better results on re- 
claimed meadows than muriate or sulphate of potash. On 
sandy soil, in Germany, five hundred to eight hundred 
pounds of kainite, with marl or lime, produced excellent 
crops of pease for fodder, and gave, without additional 
manure, a fine after-crop of grain or potatoes. In the 
South the good effects of kainite has been much more 
marked in dry seasons. Manuring with kainite only is 
not wise ; for the salts composing kainite are powerful 
digestive agents, and, though producing good crops as 
long as the soil contains any plant-food to be dissolved, 
may utterly fail afterwards, leaving the soil in far worse 
condition than at first. 

Kainite applied to meadows or grass appeared to check 
the growth of the rougher grasses : it did best in combina- 
tion with superphosphates and ammonia. It is the general 
opinion of leading agriculturists, that all the varieties of Ger- 
man potash do better if applied in the fall ; and particularly 
is this true of those having soda or magnesia in their com- 
position, as do all varieties of kainite and most of the 
muriates. Potatoes have done well when kainite has been 
applied the fall previous, but have at times been injured 
by the application of it at the time of planting. That the 
mischief done is mostly or wholly due to the presence of 
salt in the kainite, is shown by the effect of any manure 



FERTILIZERS. 23 

abounding in salt. A neighbor, some years ago, used a 
large quantity of salt-marsh mud on his potatoes. The 
result was a fine crop of remarkably smooth potatoes : 
but he could not sell a second lot to the same customer ; 
they were so watery as to be utterly useless for table use. 
Kainite, with lime or superphosphate, appears to be a 
special manure for pease and beans. On boggy land, where 
nitrogenous manures injured the crops, kainite was a suc- 
cess, surpassing even the richer potash salts. 

WOOD ASHES. 

Wood ashes are our great home source for potash. 
These are brought into the market from several sources, 
— the product of the brick-kiln, lime-kiln, or from the 
woods of Canada or the far West. " Wood ashes," says 
Professor Goessmann, "have an agricultural value much 
above their chemical value." The principal reason of this 
is, that they contain, not only potash, but all the elements 
of plant-food except nitrogen, and these in just the same 
proportions as they exist in nature, with the additional 
advantage of having them in a very fine state of subdi- 
vision. The main source of supply for the Eastern States 
has been, of late years, those brought from Canada ; single 
firms selling several hundreds of thousands of bushels 
annually. The wood of different trees differs, not only in 
the proportion of potash, lime, and phosphoric acid in 
their ashes, but also in the quantity of their ashes in 
equal quantities by measure of wood. Professor Johnson 
gives the following analysis of birch, hickory, oak, and 
chestnut wood. In the last two columns is the analysis, 
by Professor Storer, of thirteen samples of unleached Can- 
ada ashes, and also thirteen samples taken from household 
fires : — 



24 



FERTILIZERS. 



• 


Hickory. 


Birch. 


Oak. 


Chest- 
nut. 


Storer, 

13 
Samples 
House- 
hold 
Ashes. 


Storer, 

13 
Samples 
Canada 
Ashes. 






8.15 


9.26 


3.96 


8.50 


5.77 


Phosphoric acid . . . 


2.19 


2.30 


1.92 


1.69 


2.04 


1.17 




G.51 


4.36 


4.28 


5.82 


- 


- 


Percentage of ash in the 
















2.01 


2.27 


1.04 


0.50 


- 


— 



The birch was the common gray or pasture birch, which, 
it will be perceived, yielded more ashes than any of the 
others, — more than double that of the oak; while, with 
the exception of the oak, it was the richest in potash, and 
in phosphoric acid excelled either of the four. It is sur- 
mised that the sample of chestnut may have been excep- 
tionally poor in potash. I have been often told by those 
who offered me the Canada ashes for sale, that, being 
made from primitive wood, it was richer in potash than 
our secondary growth. Let that fact be as it may, the 
analysis by Professor Storer shows that the average of 
the Canada ashes sold in New England are worth but 
about five-eighths as much as the home product ; that is, 
taking the potash and phosphoric acid as the measure of 
value, where the home-made ashes is worth thirty-two 
cents a bushel, the Canada would be worth but twenty 
cents. Says Professor Johnson, "As a cord of hickory 
wood weighs, on an average, about 3,500 pounds, a cord 
of oak from 2,300 to 2,400 pounds, from the above figures 
we find that the amounts of potash and phosphoric acid 
recoverable in the ashes of a cord of oak and of hickory 
are found to be as follows : — 



FERTILIZERS. 25 

Oak. Hickory. 

Potash 2.3 lbs. 4.3 lbs. 

Phosphoric Acid 5 lb. 1.3 " 

Ashes are sold, delivered at any railroad station, at 
prices varying with the distance and the dealer. The 
ashes made from burning the wood of deciduous or hard- 
wood trees (those which shed their leaves in the fall) are 
nearly as strong again in potash as those made from trees 
of the evergreen class. Peat ashes are about one-sixth as 
strong as the ashes of hard-wood trees ; those from the 
burning of bituminous coal, one-twentieth as strong ; while 
those from anthracite are but one-sixtieth as rich. The 
deciduous trees differ considerably among themselves in the 
per cent of potash found in their ashes ; the poplar, apple, 
elm, oak, and birch taking a high rank. Though the 
phosphoric acid in ashes is in an insoluble condition, yet 
it is so finely subdivided that it readily becomes soluble 
through the action of the carbonic acid present in the soil. 

The price per bushel, by the car-load of about six 
hundred bushels, delivered in Eastern Massachusetts, is 
from 26 to 34 cents for unleached, and about 16 cents for 
leached. Three parties supply the market, each of whom 
has a word of criticism for his fellow-dealers : " He has 
coal ashes, more or less, in what he sells." " He picks his 
up through agents, and knows not what he gets." " He 
sells more or less leached ashes for unleached." I have 
•bought several car-loads of Messrs. Munroe & Stroup of 
Oswego, N.Y., and believe that they have generally been 
of good quality. More or less of them are of a suspiciously 
light color : but I am informed that is the natural color of 
the ashes from elm-trees, which abound in lime ; and, as 
the ashes taste very strong of potash, I am inclined to 
believe it. The Canadians hold, that, for upland soils, the 
ashes made from the " black " oak are nearly worthless. 



26 FERTILIZERS. 

Trees vary greatly in the richness of their ashes in potash, 
some being over twice as rich as others. For this reason, 
and the additional variation possible through fraud, all 
ashes ought to be bought and sold on analysis. It is true, 
a man may make a pretty near guess by tasting or by 
leaching a sample; but the test of a chemist, though a 
fool, can far surpass the best guess of the most experi- 
enced man. The result in the one case is a certainty; in 
the other, at the best but an uncertainty. In dealing with 
some of the smooth-tongued fellows who have all the way 
to Canada between you and their facts, it is much easier to 
analyze the ashes than the man. Ashes have been sold as 
Canada unleached that proved, on analysis, to be nothing 
more than oyster-shell lime having a slight admixture of 
wood ashes. Leached ashes contain, on an average, about 
1.40 per cent of potash, and 1.24 of phosphoric acid. 

Let us not forget, what has been already stated, that 
the potash in ashes is not pure. It is a carbonate, being 
about three-fifths pure potash ; that is, five pounds of car- 
bonate of potash are equal to three pounds of pure potash. 
As to the value of ashes per bushel, if we allow 8 cents 
per pound value for the potash, and 10 cents for the phos- 
phoric acid, then we have, for Canada ashes, 5.77 X 8 = 
46.16 + 1.17 X 10 = 11.70, equals 57.86 cents for the pot- 
ash and phosphoric acid present in 100 pounds : we have 
about 58 cents in value. *If to this we add, for the lime, 
soda, and magnesia, 8 cents, we have 66 cents as the com- 
mercial value of 100 pounds of unleached Canada ashes ; 
and, as a bushel weighs about 45 pounds, its value would 
be nearly 30 cents. 

The peculiar proportion and fine condition in which the 
several ingredients enter into ashes, make the agricultural 
value considerably higher than this. The value of leached 
ashes may be figured on the same basis ; all the ingredients 



FERTILIZERS. 27 

except the potash remaining about the same, except that 
the percentage of lime is increased. 

These facts seem to explain why leached ashes are 
sometimes as valuable to the farmers as unleached. Such 
cases simply prove that it was not potash the crop needed 
so much as the lime or other ingredients which exist in 
the leached about equally as strong as in the unleached. 
In two experiments, tried two years in succession, on corn, 
the leached, value for value, proved to be worth more 
than the unleached. In giving value for value, more 
magnesia, lime, and soda were applied with the leached 
than with the unleached ; and in these, rather than pot- 
ash, the soil was probably deficient. Or, the better results 
may have been caused by the action of the lime and mag- 
nesia in their releasing elements in the soil, making its 
nitrogen available, or improving its texture. 

Professor Ville says, that though chloride of potassium, 
sulphate of potassa, and the carbonate are all three soluble 
in water, and all three are absorbed by the roots of plants, 
yet chloride of potassium is inactive, the sulphate of po- 
tassa nearly so, while the carbonate gives the best results. 
If this is so, then it seems to follow, that potash in ashes 
is worth more for agricultural use than in the form in 
which much of it is found in the potash salts of Germany. 

Logwood Ashes. — These are made from the wood or 
wood sawdust after the coloring-matter has been ex- 
tracted. They contain but a trace of potash (.08), with 
2.30 of phosphoric acid. I have had them offered at ten 
cents per bushel. Obviously all their value comes from 
their phosphoric acid. 

Rotten Wood. — As bones exposed a while on the sur- 
face, part with their nitrogen to the greedy soil ; so wood 
exposed so long as to be pretty rotten, appears to part with 
its potash, for I am told that little or none is found in its 



28 FERTILIZERS. 

ashes. Probably this is one of the reasons why the soil 
from chip-waste is so good a fertilizer. 

Tan Ash. — This is a very light ash, and is considered 
by soap-makers as very poor in potash ; the lye from it 
being about equal in strength to pump-water, as one told 
me. Nevertheless, there is value in it, especially on low 
grass-land, probably from the lime, magnesia, etc., in its 
composition. It sells for a low figure, less than half the 
price of ordinary ashes. 

Brick-Kiln Ashes. — These always come mixed more 
or less with broken brick and burnt clay, and are worth no 
more than the ashes made from the wood used in burning 
the brick. The mass is worth from five to seventeen cents 
per bushel. 

Lime-Kiln Ashes. — These are usually a little wood 
ashes mixed with five or six times their weight of particles 
of lime partly burnt. Some analyze of less value than air- 
slacked lime. A few years ago I examined a sample from 
some thousands of bushels offered me at sixteen cents per 
bushel : a common sieve took out over half its weight of 
worthless limestone, leaving the remainder largely made 
up of smaller particles of the same. The lot would have 
been dear at eight cents per bushel. 

Ashes from bashes, bark of trees, and animals, are richer 
in potash than those from the body wood ; and those from 
cultivated trees are said to be richer than those made from 
trees of wild growth. 

Burnt Soil. — Where stumps, bushes, and sods are 
burned, there is left a mass of red-colored light ash-like resi- 
due. This, farmers usually call ashes. Bear in mind our 
axiom, that, in manure matters, nothing more can come out 
than goes in. The real ashes, therefore, in such heaps, must 
bear the usual proportion to the vegetable matter burned. 
By this measure to guide us, we must conclude that but a 



FERTILIZERS. 29 

very 'insignificant proportion of the ash-looking mass is 
ashes from burnt vegetable matter. And such is the fact : 
the great bulk of it is simple mineral matter from burnt 
soil, colored red by the action of the fire on the iron that is 
found in about all soils, — the same mineral that makes the 
white brick turn red in burning. 

COAL ASHES. 

Coal ashes contain no appreciable amount of potash : 
the chief ingredient is silica. They contain also some 
lime and magnesia : some assert that there is as high as 
100 pounds of magnesia to the cord, with 160 pounds of 
sulphuric acid. The trace of potash comes from the wood 
used in kindling fires, and the coal itself. Theoretically, 
coal ashes should prove of but little value on most soils, 
beyond making heavy soils more open, and supplying silica 
to land of a muck-like character ; still, there is considerable 
of value in them, when used in connection with manure, 
on some crops, especially potatoes, and around bushes and 
fruit-trees. Here they serve as a mulch, and, like all 
mulches, indirectly improve the soil beneath them. Many 
of the coal ash-heaps in towns are made receptacles for the 
slops of the family, which turn them into manure that will 
pay for carting a mile or two. When night-soil is col- 
lected, they are valuable for forming the bed to receive it, 
and act as an excellent absorbent. 

COTTON-SEED HULLS. 

This is one of the sources for potash confined mostly to 
the South, not only because they are wholly burned there, 
but because the ashes are oftentimes mixed more or less 
with coal ashes, and charred and unburnt hulls used in the 
furnaces of the oil manufactories, where they are largely 
consumed as fuel. Because of these impurities, they are 



30 FERTILIZERS. 

rarely found in the market for sale. The ashes analyze, 
on an average, 19.5 potash, and 9.2 phosphoric acid ; nearly 
all of each in a soluble condition. They are usually sold at 
twelve dollars per ton, while the potash alone makes them 
worth nearly twice as much. The strong potash attracts 
moisture, of which there is usually 15 per cent present. - 

THE USES OF POTASH IN AGRICULTURE. 

Potash, as we have already stated, is one of the three 
essentials for plant-growth. By this I do not mean to 
advise that it should always be applied to every crop ; for 
there are soils already so over-rich in potash and soda, that, 
except the wild sage and a few other shrubs, nothing will 
grow on them. This is the characteristic of what was 
known in our geographies as " the great American 
desert." The trouble was, it was over-rich in soda ; but, 
when the Mormons at Utah diluted these with water from 
the mountains, the " desert " disappeared, and in its place 
stands a fertile land. Some of the soils of New Eng- 
land, even, will bear cropping for a few years without any 
application of potash : they may have good natural stores 
of it in plant-food form, or the potash may have accumu- 
lated in the soil through years of heavy manuring. The 
natural growth on any soil is a good indication as to 
whether or not our farms are rich in potash. If they yield 
a thrifty growth of potash-bearing trees or plants, such as 
beech, maple, oak, walnut, or elm among trees, or tansy or 
purslane among plants, it is a fair inference that it is nat- 
urally rich in potash in food condition. Soils that have 
been manured for years with either barn manures or sea 
manures, have large stores of accumulated potash ; and, 
when using commercial fertilizers on such soils, this fact 
might economically be borne in mind. As has been shown 
before, about all soils derived from granitic rock are enor- 



FERTILIZERS. 31 

moUsly rich in potash in a latent state. Soils formed from 
red sandstone contain potash (usually) enough to make 
the application to some crops unnecessary. 

It may be objected, to the above position, that the trees 
and plants, having taken the quantity necessary for their 
structure out of the ground, would leave it poor in potash. 
In reply, I would say that the natural potash supply is 
practically inexhaustible : the thrift of the trees indicates 
that it is supplied as fast as plant-growth can take it up, 
which is another way of stating that it is rich in -available 
potash. Clover and beans are very sensitive to a defi- 
ciency of potash in the soil ; and if we farmers wish to 
inquire of our land as to whether it needs potash in the 
fertilizers we apply, if we plant either of these, we shall 
get an answer. Kemp's manure-spreader is an excellent 
means for spreading ashes, though one would not be likely 
to think so on looking at it ; yet it is really as good for dis- 
tributing ashes as it is manure. When filled with manure, 
it distributes at the rate of four cords to the acre. Four 
cords are 400 bushels. Now, then, if we wish to spread 
any given quantit}^ of ashes per acre, we must fill the body 
just that proportion full as the quantity we desire to use 
on an acre is of 400. For instance, if we wanted to spread 
100 bushels to the acre, then w-e must fill it one-quarter 
full ; for, if entirely full, it would spread 400. And just 
here let me repeat, that neither potash nor phosphoric acid 
wastes to any extent in the soil ; that is, they always re- 
main within the reach of the roots of plants : and therefore 
any surplus left over from one crop will be found by after- 
crops. 

If farmers will get into the habit of testing their soils 
(we shall illustrate this farther on), they might at times 
omit the use of potash on their crops with no loss. But it 
would not be wise to risk this: w r e should know what we 



32 FERTILIZERS. 

are doing. " The result of a study of a long list of experi- 
ments," says the " Connecticut Agricultural Report " of : 
1880, "is to prove clearly that in many instances the 
reason why guano, fish, bone, superphosphate, and other 
manures fail to give a satisfactory result is, for want of 
potash." In cases where fish or night-soil has been used 
exclusively as fertilizers for a series of years, the soil some- 
times bakes, and becomes nearly sterile ; the application 
of potash to such soils is often followed by very strik- 
ing results. On land where potash did no good applied 
to corn, it did prove valuable to potatoes alongside : " and, 
if it does good under such circumstances, it might be 
assumed to do good to potatoes on .any soil ; and such is 
the fact." On some soils the effect of potash is very strik- 
ing. On the farm of Mr. Sage, one of the enterprising 
experimenters with chemicals, potash paid him ten times 
its cost on corn, potatoes, oats, and wheat. A good deal 
more enterprise along the line of these soil-tests would 
pay all of us brother farmers a heavier per cent than we 
ever received from any savings bank. The effect of all 
forms of potash is decidedly greater if applied in the fall 
or winter. The sulphate and muriate may be mixed with 
any fertilizer, as they will not free the ammonia. Un- 
leached ashes, the agricultural chemists tell us, can be 
safely mixed with guano, flesh, blood, castor-pomace, 
cotton-seed meal, and with stable manure (if it is not in 
a fermenting condition), if in each instance a little soil is 
thrown over the mass, or they are ploughed under soon after 
mixing. If the ashes are first treated with sulphuric acid, 
so as to change the carbonate of potash they contain, which 
is volatile, into a sulphate which is not volatile, it may 
then be used like the German potash salts, and be freely 
mixed with any manure, under any circumstances. Guano, 
given in the above list, I should take exception to ; for, 



FERTILIZERS. 66 

if either that or the ashes are damp, in my experience 
I found a loss of ammonia immediately perceptible. If 
mixed with a mixture of fish and barn manure, it will 
hasten decomposition; and the mass should be covered 
with soil, to catch the ammonia. 

Mr. Lawes, after his famous experiments in England, 
extending over a period of forty years, concludes that in 
his soil, which is a strong clay, potash is found naturally 
in sufficient quantity, and therefore no artificial supply is 
required. In this country, the application of potash usually 
has a good effect on clay soils ; though, as potash enters 
largely into their composition, one would naturally infer 
the contrary. The benefits from it are thought to be due 
to its indirect action in opening the soil or otherwise im- 
proving its mechanical condition, and also by rendering 
other plant-food available. In the valuable experiments 
inaugurated by the Connecticut commissioner of agricul- 
ture, it was found that potash helped the crop most on 
the poorer soils, while it did but little good on those that 
were rich. Professor Ville recommends potash especially 
for pease, beans, clover, lucern, flax, and potatoes. Out of 
twenty-six experiments in corn-raising, it was noted by 
Professor Atwater, that of the three elements, viz., 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, the latter did most 
good in five of them, proved useful in six, and in the 
remaining fifteen did no good. In the experiments at 
the Agricultural College of Maine, beans were decidedly 
benefited by the application of potash, while ruta-bagas 
were not helped. It has been found, that, when muriate 
of potash and nitrate of soda are mixed together, and 
applied as a fertilizer, in dry seasons they did more harm 
than good. It is found that plants have the power of 
substituting potash for soda, but the reverse does not 
always hold true. 



34 FERTILIZERS. 



WHAT IS NITROGEN? 

The air mass which surrounds the earth for a depth of 
about fifty miles, as it flashes through space more than 
twenty times swifter than a cannon-ball at the highest 
velocity, is made up of about four-fifths nitrogen and one- 
fifth oxygen gas. This gives unnumbered thousands of 
tons of nitrogen always right at hand, but never avail- 
able ; for human knowledge has not as jet discovered a 
way by which nitrogen can be economically got at for 
plant-food. We have to depend, for our supply, wholly on 
what plants and animals have incorporated into their 
structure ; using their waste in the form of manure and 
dead remains, either from land or sea, for our source of sup- 
ply. The ammoniated liquor from the gas-works is but the 
waste produced from the remains of ancient forests, which 
we burn as coal. The same is true of animal life as of plant 
life. Though over three-fourths of the air we breathe is 
nitrogen, though it enters so largely into the composition 
of our bodies, yet we have to obtain it from the animal 
and vegetable food we eat. As the product of animal 
waste in drinking-water, it sometimes causes dangerous 
fevers. When nitrogen is combined with hydrogen, — 18 
parts of hydrogen to 82 parts of nitrogen, — Ave have am- 
monia, one of the most common forms in which, from the 
waste of both animals and plants, nitrogen is fed to our 
crops. 

The other most important source of nitrogen is nitric 
acid. This is a combination of nitrogen with oxygen ; 
and nitrates, of which we see frequent mention in all 
works on manures, are a combination of the nitric acid 
with soda, potash, and other materials, which are called 
bases. It is well to fix in the mind,, that, in changing 
nitrogen to ammonia in any manure analysis, we must add 



* ♦ FERTILIZERS. 35 

about one-fifth to the quantity given. It appears to be 
the settled conviction among men of science, as the results 
from many experiments, that plants cannot take up pure 
nitrogen directly from the air. The theory is, that they 
are able, to a greater or less degree, to get their supply 
through the water, that carries it in some form in solution 
into the soil, and also from the air indirectly, by the soil 
first separating it from the air that permeates it. Still 
another source of natural supply for plant-growth is nitro- 
gen in a latent condition, that has accumulated in the soil, 
set free by the action of such substances as lime and 
plaster. There is a general belief among agriculturists, 
that plants have ways of collecting nitrogen still but little 
known ; while some extremists have gone so far as to de- 
clare that there is no necessity of feeding nitrogen to our 
crops, for they can of themselves collect from natural 
sources all they require. There is a growing belief that 
their power to supply their wants from natural sources 
is greater than has hitherto been credited to them. It is 
found, also, that different kinds of plants have different 
capacities for taking up nitrogen. Clover is an example ; 
for, though nitrogen enters largely into its composition, it 
has such a capacity 'to help itself to the good things which 
surround it, that it needs but very little artificial help 
from the manure pile : while wheat, though it needs but 
little nitrogen, is so dainty a feeder that it insists on a 
large artificial supply, from which it may pick out that little. 

WHERE NITROGEN OR AMMONIA COMES FROM. 

The Waste of the Fisheries. — One of the prin- 
cipal sources from which manufacturers obtain the am- 
monia in their fertilizers is from the fish waste or offal 
which they pick up all along the Atlantic coast, from 
Maine to Florida. The largest portion of the waste is 



36 FERTILIZERS. , • 

from the fish known by various names in different locali- 
ties, as "manhaden," "heart-heads," "moss-bunkers," and, 
in the South, as "fat-backs." These are caught in nets, 
and boiled, to secure the oil, in which they are rich, at 
various establishments along the shore and islands of the 
coast. After boiling, the water and oil are pressed out of 
the mass, and the residue sometimes thrown into heaps, 
to heat and dry ; at other times it is put directly into bar- 
rels, and pressed in. In this condition it is known as 
"pomace " or " chum." If it is to be sold as fish-guano, it 
is spread on large platforms to dry, after which it is ground. 

As a general rule, three barrels of fish before cooking 
make one barrel of the chum. The fertilizer manufac- 
turer dries and grinds it, using it crude, or treating it with 
acid, to make the nitrogen and phosphoric acid directly 
available for plant-food. Sometimes, when the catch is a 
large one (over two hundred thousand fishes are at times 
taken in a single haul of the net, enough to load two or 
three vessels of fifty tons each), and the quantity of fish 
is larger than the oil-factories can take care of in hot 
weather, the surplus is sold to the neighboring farmers at 
the best price that can be got. These fish are oftentimes 
put directly on the grass-land. The effect is very stimu- 
lating, and enormous crops of grass can be raised for a 
few years by such annual dressings ; but the final result 
is, the soil becomes hard, the fish have less and less effect, 
and the crop is almost nothing. The fish are deficient in 
potash, and the result is what always ultimately comes 
from continuous manuring with any substance which is 
deficient in one of the three essentials of the plant-food. 
If, after grass-land gives out under the fish-system of ma- 
nuring, potash be used, the fertility can be restored. 

Besides the manhaden, theie are numerous other fish- 
wastes, all rich in nitrogen and phosphate. On two occa- 



FERTILIZERS. 37 

sions I have purchased cargoes of spoiled herring ; in one 
instance, nine hundred barrels, at the rate of fifty or sixty 
cents a barrel, which, as a barrel weighs about two hun- 
dred pounds, would be about five dollars per ton. In some 
instances the fish are preserved in salt, which adds one- 
quarter or more to the weight : in others they are fresh, 
with the oil in them, which does not add to their value as 
manure, for oil is nearly pure carbon, which is of no value 
for that purpose ; on the contrary, it hinders, somewhat, 
their decomposition. Occasionally, during the fall fishing 
on the fishing-banks near the coast, a supply of pollock 
will accumulate more than the market can take, when 
they can be purchased at a price that will make cheap 
manure. A few years ago, to help sustain the market, I 
left a standing offer with our fisherman that I would pay 
twenty-five cents a hundred pounds for pollock : the 
result was twenty thousand pounds of fine large fish, 
weighing from eight to fifteen pounds, just out of the 
water, hauled to my manure heaps. A few years ago vast 
quantities of waste were made in the heads, sound-bones, 
and entrails which accumulate at fishing-ports. These 
were for years dropped into the ocean as refuse. So 
immense was the waste, that at the Isle of Shoals, off 
the New-Hampshire shore, the harbor actually became so 
nearly closed to navigation that the inhabitants on two 
occasions had to dredge them out. I am told, that, be- 
neath some of the long wharves of Gloucester, the great 
fishing-town of the United States, there has accumu- 
lated an almost immeasurable quantity of this bone refuse. 
When, a few years ago, the heads, sound-bones, and en- 
trails became a market article, I used to buy it at five or 
six dollars a cord on board the cars : a cord weighs from 
three and a half to four tons. It was exceedingly cheap 
manure, but a very disagreeable one to handle, the smell 



38 FERTILIZERS. 

being any thing but ottar of roses, while it took a vast 
quantity of soil to compost it. After remaining some 
months, oftentimes the heads would not be fully decayed, 
making the mass extremely disagreeable to handle ; while 
there could be only a rough guess made as to how much 
of it would become plant-food the same season it was 
applied. Of late years the fish are for the most part 
cleaned before the vessels reach port, and the waste 
thrown overboard. At places along the coast where bay- 
fishing is carried on on a large scale, there can be some- 
times found a liver or blubber " chum; " it being the refuse 
after oil is extracted from fish-liver. If a year old, it 
loses moisture and consequently weight, and is therefore 
richer. This liver chum is a pasty, sticky substance, gen- 
erally sold at a figure considerably below its value by 
analysis. I have bought it as low as $4.50 per ton the 
present season (1885); and it is rarely higher than $12, 
though, by analysis, it is worth $18.83 per ton. I would 
advise cutting liver refuse with sharp sand, to make it 
fairly fine. 

Halibut " chum " is the refuse from the heads of hali- 
but, which are cooked under high pressure, to extract 
the oil that exists in the bones. The result is, to leave the 
bones in such a state that they can easily be crumbled. 
Naturally, this is especially rich in phosphoric acid. It 
analyzes worth $19.99 per ton, and is sold at from $6 
to $10. This chum is usually engaged beforehand by 
dealers in fertilizers ; but a wide-awake man, by looking 
around, can generally pick up a supply. The waste of 
herring and mackerel at the fishing-townc is sometimes 
made up into " chum," being first boiled, to secure what- 
ever oil they contain. These usually contain more or less 
of salt, having sometimes as high as twenty per cent, 
which makes them about as salt as kainite ; and, like the 



FERTILIZERS. 39 

potash-bearing mineral, they therefore need to be used 
with some care, lest the proportion of salt present injure 
the roots of growing plants. 

There is another waste of the fisheries which has come 
into the market of late years : I refer to the skins, bones, 
and tins of salted fish. These come from the fish that 
are stripped, and sold, boxed, free of bones. It is a heavy 
article, and the strips come a little tangled. Fertilizer 
manufacturers usually monopolize this ; though it can 
sometimes be picked U p a t Gloucester, Mass., at from 
$3.75 to 115 per ton. 

Dog-fish, which is another name for a small species of shark, 
in the summer season swarm along the New-England coast, 
on the inner fishing-banks, driving away most other varie- 
ties. They weigh from five to ten pounds. They are very 
easily caught, and, their muscles being very firm, are rich 
as manure. The great trouble in manipulating these has 
been because, the flesh being of a sticky and oily nature, 
acid will not readily act on it. Still, they are used very 
largely, as a source for ammonia, by one large fertilizer 
manufacturer in the vicinity of Boston, who composts 
them with horse manure, and, I infer, lets his compost 
heaps remain two years before using, when the objection 
disappears. Being so abundant along the coast, and so 
cheap, being sold, wholesale, at $1 a hundred fish, they 
are well worthy the attention of farmers who live along 
the shore ; for, though it might be necessary to keep them 
over a year, the investment would pay an interest of some 
hundred per cent. The fishermen in many localities would 
catch them if there was a market for them. The oil from 
the livers averages about a cent each fish ; and, with one 
cent from the livers and another for the fish itself, quite a 
fair business can be done during the hot months. 

Waste salt that has been once used on fish contains in 



40 FERTILIZERS. 

it some fish-waste, such as blood, and particles of the flesh 
and scales of the fish ; for this reason, it has some value 
as manure, in addition to its action on crops as salt. The 
fish-scales analyze in the vicinity of sixteen per cent in 
ammonia, and forty cents in phosphate of lime : they de- 
compose more slowly than the flesh of the fish. Fish- 
manure, having the same origin as Peruvian guano, has the 
same constituents, but not in the same proportion ; for 
ages of decay have reduced the guano greatly in bulk, and 
in the same proportion have concentrated it. All forms 
of " chum " have a large proportion of water in their com- 
position. The fish-heads and back-bones have as high 
as 66 per cent : the chum pressed by a hand press has 
about 50 per cent, and that from a hydraulic press about 
40 per cent. The • average of the whole fish, as taken 
from the water, is about 80 per cent. The fish-guano 
made from dried fish-waste, contains, on an average, 7.8 
per cent of nitrogen. In making fish-guano, the waste is 
dried in the sun or by waste steam, and, when sufficiently 
dry, is ground, and sold at about $ 33 per ton. 

The shells of lobsters, of which vast quantities accumu- 
late at canning-factories, are ground up, and sold as plant- 
food. They are a complete manure, and especially rich in 
nitrogen: analyzing, nitrogen, 6.2; potash, 0.2 ; phosphoric 
acid, 2.3. 

HOW TO HANDLE FISH-WASTE, AND THE BEST WAY TO 
FEED IT TO THE CROPS. 

All fish-waste used in a crude state, as might be inferred 
from its composition, is very stimulating, and, being pur- 
chased at a low figure, is oftentimes used by farmers with 
a very liberal hand. As a consequence, their crops are 
sometimes " burned up," as the phrase is. They are apt 
to infer, that, if they cannot see the presence of the fish in 



FERTILIZERS. 41 

any part of the soil of the compost heaps as they pitch it 
over, such soil can have no richness. Now, one of the 
wonderful properties of dry soil is the avidity with which 
it takes ammonia to itself; and it may always be safely 
inferred, that, in a well-mixed compost heap of fish-waste, 
the ammonia has diffused itself through every portion of 
it ; and, all portions being assumed to be rich plant-food, it 
should be used accordingly. Owing to the great richness 
of manure made from fish in bulk, it is wiser, even after 
composting it, to use it broadcast, rather than in the hill. 
Fish "churn, " or "pomace," may be used either broadcast 
and harrowed in, or by first composting with poor manure, 
to enrich the same. If, after being broken up fine, it is 
put in thin layers with the manure, it will help the devel- 
opment of heat, which will tend to fine it up, so that it will 
combine with the mass when it is pitched over. A third 
way is, to compost it with soil, waste turf, muck, or saw- 
dust. In either way it is composted, it is always good 
farming to take careful notes of how many barrels go into 
the heap, that from that we may know how much of pot- 
ash, ammonia, and phosphoric acid we are applying to any 
given crop, and govern ourselves accordingly. There are 
two mistakes made in applying too heavily to one to 
applying too sparingly. 

It is surprising how penetrating is the ammonia from 
fish-compost. For this reason, in making a heap, the bot- 
tom layer of soil should be a foot or more in thickness. I 
have seen cases, where the fish was mixed liberally, where 
the soil was full of ammonia for several feet below the 
surface. In making the compost heap, after spreading 
the bottom layer, which should be thicker when whole fish 
or the coarser waste is used, cover this with sufficient waste 
to just hide the soil ; then cover with sod or soil about six 
times the depth of the fish ; and thus proceed, scattering 



42 FERTILIZERS. 

raw ground plaster over each layer of fish before covering 
with soil, at the rate of fifty pounds of plaster to three 
hundred weight of fish. After the pile has been built up 
four or five feet in height, surround the entire heap (it 
should be on level ground) with a little embankment of 
fine soil. This will catch the liquid that often runs from 
it when the fish begins to decompose, as well as catch what 
may be soaked from it by heavy rains ; while it will also 
be handy to fill up the holes that are apt to show them- 
selves in the top as the decomposition progresses, letting 
out bad odors unless they are promptly closed. As the 
presence of oil or salt tends to check decomposition, fish- 
waste containing much of either of these had better be 
composted with stable manure rather than soil, as the heat 
from the manure will start decomposition. If decomposi- 
tion is slow to start, unleached ashes or lime and plaster 
may be mixed with the mass ; but be sure to cover such 
heaps with soil. The compost heaps, when manure is not 
used, should be made, if possible, before warm weather 
closes; and, should no heat be found by driving a bar 
down, and testing it, after it has lain a couple of weeks, 
then pitch it over, to let the air in, and cover the outside 
lightly with soil. Where chum is used, after having been 
made fine, it can be applied directly to the surface of till- 
age land in the fall, and harrowed in, or be ploughed 
lightly under, to be thrown up near the surface by a 
deeper ploughing in the spring. If left on the surface, I 
find it is spreading a table all winter long for the crows 
of the country. 

By applying the chum in the fall, it will have the ad- 
vantage of rain and frost to help subdivide and dissolve it. 
Fish-skins, when used on tillage land, had better first be 
composted. If to be used on sward-land for grass, spread 
thin in the fall or very early spring. 



FERTILIZERS. 43 



HOW MUCH FISH- WASTE SHOULD BE USED TO THE ACRE ? 

To determine this, we must consider two points. First, 
what proportion of it will make digestible plant-food the 
first season? and secondly, what and how much of the 
phosphoric acid and ammonia found in them do the crops 
we propose to raise require ? I think we can assume, as a 
general truth, that about all the ammonia becomes plant- 
food the same season it is applied, while not much over 
one-half of the phosphoric acid can be safely counted on. 
If we use fish-waste on the same land the second year, 
we may assume that all the phosphoric acid is available ; 
for by that time the half left over from last season will 
have decomposed. 

As has been stated, waste fish, particularly manhaden, 
are often used along the seacoast as a top-dressing for grass. 
This is a great forcing process, and for a while enormous 
crops of hay can be grown ; but eventually, especially on 
light soil, the crops grow less and less, when generally a 
larger quantity of fish is applied, resulting in still more 
harm, until the soil utterly refuses to respond, bakes hard, 
and becomes apparently barren. The trouble is, it has had 
an enormous application of ammonia and phosphoric acid, 
but nearly none of potash ; and the result is what alwa}*s 
will ultimately happen on any soil when one of the three 
elements of fertilizers is left out. Such soils are dying 
for want of potash. To recuperate them, apply potash, or 
manures rich in potash, and their fertility can be restored. 
Soil abounding in clay will stand fish-manuring without 
showing injury longer than those of a gravelly char- 
acter. 



44 FERTILIZERS. 



OTHER SOURCES FOR NITROGEN. 

Peruvian Guano, Sulphate of Ammonia, Nitrate of Potash, Nitrate of Soda, 
Castor-Pomace, Azotin, Ammonite, Tankage, Dried Blood, Cotton- Seed 
Waste, Hoof and Horn Shavings, and Leather- Waste. 

(An anatysis of the above will be found in the table on pp. Ill, 112.) 

As this treatise is to be for the most part confined to 
those sources of crop-food, which, by way of contrast with 
barnyard and the more common class of manures, are 
called "fertilizers," I will not go into details relative to 
several of the sources from which nitrogen may be obtained, 
as this would make my treatise too extensive. If the public 
should appear to desire a more extended work, containing 
all the manure resources, I may write it at a future day. 

At the head of fertilizers, as distinguished from barn 
manure, stands guano. This may be defined as rotten 
sea-bird dung, with the remains of birds mixed with it. It 
is found on thousands of islands, but only on a few of these 
in large quantities. Being manure of birds that feed on 
fish, it would always contain the same manure elements 
as fish, but that the rain dissolves and washes out the 
ammonia, leaving but the phosphate behind. Near Peru, 
however, there are a few islands lying in a region where 
no rain falls ; as what would otherwise be the rain-bearing 
wind for the region loses all its moisture by the time it 
passes over the high, dry tops of the lofty Andes Moun- 
tains. These islands yield a guano rich in ammonia. 
There are several kinds of guano in the market, known as 
Rectified, Guaranteed, Standard, Lobos, Navassa, Carib- 
bean, etc. The first three named are varieties of the 
Peruvian (sometimes also called Chincha, or Guanape, to 
designate the localities from which they Were obtained), all 
rich in ammonia, — Standard containing nine to ten per 
cent, Lobos five to five and one-half, and Guaranteed six to 



FERTILIZERS. 45 

seven*. Each is rich in phosphoric acid, nearly all soluble, 
and has from two to three per cent of potash. The Navassa 
and Caribbean-sea guanos are rich in insoluble phosphoric 
acid, but are entirely wanting in nitrogen or potash. The 
Standard is quoted me at the time of writing, February, 
1885, by Seth Chapman's Son & Co., No. 170 Front Street, 
New-York City, at $63 per ton of 2,240 pounds, and the 
Lobos at $48. Their published analysis gives to the former 
nine to ten per cent ammonia, twelve per cent phosphoric 
acid, and three per cent potash. 

It is claimed that the nitrogen in the guano has a value 
over that contained in manure, into which enters fish 
blood or meat as a supply of ammonia, and hence called 
"organic nitrogen," inasmuch as in the guano it is in a 
form ready to be taken up by plants, while the fish blood 
and meat must first enter into a state of putrefaction, 
when some of the nitrogen is set free in a pure state, 
and, being, in that condition, inert as plant-food, is partly 
lost to the plant. This loss has been estimated to be from 
one-sixth to one-third the total amount of nitrogen con- 
tained in the substance. Be the reason what it may, no 
one* fertilizer has given such universal satisfaction as 
guano. It, indeed, is the standard by which we almost 
instinctively measure the value of all other fertilizers. It 
having been asserted. that about all the guano sold of 
recent years was an artificial product, made from fish as a 
base, with enough of real guano added to give the guano 
color to the fertilizer, I wrote about the matter to Seth 
Chapman's Son & Co., who are the agents for the sale of 
this fertilizer. In justice to them, I publish their reply : — 

New York, Feb. 5, 1885. 
Mr. J. J. H. Gregory, Marblehead, Mass. 

Dear Sir, — Yours of the 4th inst. is received. We have heard more or 
less about adulteration of Peruvian guano ever since Messrs. Hurcado & 
Co. commenced making it of uniform quality by mixing cargoes of differ- 



46 FERTILIZERS. 

ent analyses, some nine years ago ; but we have never been able to learn 

that any thing was added to it other than sulphate of ammonia. This, 

which is the same form of ammonia found in Peruvian guano, is used to 

bring up the percentage to the standard when the guano is deficient. We 

can supply the crude guano in sealed bags, as imported, and furnish a copy 

of analysis, which is not guaranteed ; nor is any allowance made for stones. 

Price, same as Standard, $63 for 2,240 pounds; and analyses said to be the 

same. 

Yours respectfully, 

SETH CHAPMAN'S SON & CO. 

From this we learn that it is still possible to obtain 
guano in the original, unbroken packages, directly from 
the guano islands, though it will be more or less lumpy, 
and there may be some stones among it. Messrs. Chap- 
man & Co. quote, Feb. 6, 1885, guano in original bags per 
ton of 2,240 pounds, $63; Standard, $63; Lobos, $48. 
This price is at their store, for which cartage to the cars 
is $1.25 per ton. After paying freight, I have found 
the price to be several dollars per ton cheaper than the 
same quality of guano is sold at nearer home. Farmers, 
in buying, should remember the difference in quality be- 
tween Lobos and the Standard, and should see that the 
price corresponds. I am told of an instance in Central 
Massachusetts, where last season a party mixed a little 
guano with salt-cake, as the residue of the manufacture 
of sulphuric acid is called, and sold five hundred tons of 
the stuff as a fertilizer. He was prosecuted, but, being a 
lawyer himself, found some loophole in the law, through 
which he crawled. 

It is proper to state just here, that the fertilizers in the 
market into whose name the word " guano " enters, how- 
ever good they may be, have not now, as far as I can 
learn, a particle of Peruvian guano in their composition. 
I must also add, that dealers in fertilizers assert that the 
amount of real Peruvian guano imported is but trivial 
compared with the quantity sold under that name, and 



FERTILIZERS. 47 

that some of that imported into this country from England 
has been found to be grossly adulterated. All that we 
farmers can do is, to buy it under a warrant that it contains 
given quantities of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. 
Mr. Chapman says in his letter, that, in bringing the nitro- 
gen up to that required for Standard, sulphate of am- 
monia was used. Assuming this to be so, and that it is 
not obtained from any organic source, then it would be of 
the same value as though obtained from the guano itself. 
From tests I made on grass-land, I found that the Peru- 
vian guano I purchased of Messrs. Chapman & Co. started 
the grass earlier than did an equal value of sulphate of 
ammonia applied at the same time, side by side, on an 
equal area. This satisfied me that its nitrogen was not 
derived wholly, if at all, from waste fish or meat. 

Ten years ago the New York Agricultural Societ}* took 
up the matter of the adulteration of Peruvian guano, 
purchased eleven bags of as many dealers, and had them 
analyzed. The result was a value differing from 838.33 to 
1107.68, though each was sold at the same price per ton. 
In the report of the Connecticut agricultural station for 
1881, it is stated, that, while Peruvian guano used formerly 
to contain no more than one or two per cent each of soda, 
sulphuric acid, and chlorine, the sample analyzed that 
year contained about thirteen per cent of sulphate of soda 
(salt-cake), and eleven per cent of common salt. 

The Chincha Islands, which have been the great source, 
in past years, of Peruvian guano, lie near the coast of 
Peru, barren granite rocks, with great depth of water 
close by them, so that in places the largest vessels can 
lay alongside and be loaded from the land by a shoot 
entering into their holds. The guano, a thoroughly rotted 
mass of bird-dung, in which are mixed feathers, carcasses, 
and eggs, was from four to a hundred feet in depth. 



48 FERTILIZERS. 

Old salts tell me that they brought up the same material 
from deep bottom on the flukes of their anchors. Had 
the} 7 said it looked the same, I should have believed them. 
From twelve to fifteen million tons have been taken from 
the Chincha Islands alone. Bat guano is sometimes ex- 
tensively found in large caves in various parts of the 
world, but it varies greatly in quality. 

In applying guano, the Standard, which is especially rich 
in ammonia, should be applied to those crops which are 
especially ammonia-loving ; while the Lobos should be 
used on those which need phosphoric acid more than 
they do ammonia. The potash required beyond what the 
guano contains may be added from muriate or sulphate 
of potash. The quantity to be used will vary with the 
condition of the soil in natural strength and richness by 
manuring in past years, the range being from two hun- 
dred and fifty to eight hundred pounds per acre. The 
manner of applying will depend somewhat on the crops 
to be raised ; but a good general rule is, to apply a part 
before the crop is planted, and make one or two applica- 
tions at different stages of its growth. If scattered broad- 
cast, it should be harrowed in at once, to prevent the 
escape of ammonia. That used in drills, I find it easy to 
mix thoroughly with the soil by dragging through the 
furrow the top of a stocky red cedar, to which a stone 
weighing eight or ten pounds has been firmly tied ; or, a 
brush-broom similarly weighted answers very well. When 
used in the hill, the farmers who employ help will need 
to look sharply after them ; for I find but very few farm- 
hands take the care necessary to so thoroughly incorporate 
it in the soil as to prevent the destroying of the young 
plants. In all our handling of this powerful manure, we 
must bear in mind the danger of bringing it in contact 
with the young roots of the sprouting seed. I recall, that, 



FERTILIZERS. 49 

a dozen years ago, a foreman, who assured me he knew all 
about the handling of guano, planted for me a couple of 
acres of cabbage. A few days after they had broken 
ground, I noticed the very dark color of the leaves, and, 
mistrusting the cause, ran my fingers under the plants, and 
brought up the pure guano. All that piece was replanted. 
To insure, as near as possible, a thorough admixture 
with the soil in hill-planting, I have a rule for each man, — 
after the guano has been scattered over an area as large as 
a dinner-plate, after covering it shallow, to draw his six- 
tined fork three times through it one way, three times 
through it the opposite way, and then, holding his fork per- 
pendicularly in the middle, give it a twist around. Some 
advocate mixing it with two or three times its bulk of earth 
before applying it. While this insures a thorough mix- 
ture with the soil, it adds considerable work to the labor 
of distribution ; and, since the plan of dragging the cedar- 
boughs in the drill has worked well, I haved adopted that 
as a saving of time. However, whenever there is any thing 
of a breeze blowing, it is wise to adopt some such plan; 
otherwise your neighbors 1 fields will be apt to share the 
manure with you. Let me here say, that I have found it 
an excellent plan, when distributing fertilizers, to take the 
earlier part of the day ; for I find that, as a rule, the calmest 
portion. It is a good plan, in handling almost any fertilizer, 
except guano, — a little damp soil will answer for this, — 
to have plenty of water at hand, and pour a half-bucket 
now and then into the barrel j on are spreading from ; 
then stir it with a hoe until, while dry enough to spread 
freely, it is too damp to blow away. If applying to the sur- 
face, always do it, if possible, just before a rain. I some- 
times use it on onions, to hurry up the bottoming of the 
crops, — about two hundred pounds to the acre. Having 
scattered it with the hand, immediately follow with a 



50 FERTILIZERS. 

slide-hoe, to work as much of it as possible into the soil, 
and so save loss of ammonia. This is an excellent fer- 
tilizer to use, in connection with barnyard manure, in the 
early season, to give the crops a start. 

Market gardeners in the vicinity of our large cities 
have but very little respect for phosphate and special fer- 
tilizers, but, using from ten to twelve cords of stable 
manure to the acre, think highly of guano at the rate of 
a thousand pounds, or bone at the rate of two thousand 
pounds, per acre as an adjunct ; or, when stable manure 
alone is to be depended on, from twenty to thirty cords. 1 
Now, it is the nitrates that start the plants of the mar- 
ket gardener, and, as far as the guano goes, for this end 
it is a wise use of it; but to develop nitrates in stable 
manure requires a degree of heat that the soil does not 
receive before the season is somewhat advanced. With- 
out knowing it, gardeners are using this vast amount of 
barn manure to get a small stock of plant-food, which 
they have already at hand in the fertilizer market, ready- 
made, in the form of guano and nitrate of soda. A wise 
head has suggested that they dispense with three-quarters 
of the heavy manuring, and use one-half of the value of 
this in investing in nitrate of soda, and put the balance 
in their pockets as so much money saved. 

In closing the subject of nitrogen, I cannot do better 
than quote the able remarks of Professor Goessmann : 
" The air contains at all times carbonic acid, and in most 
instances also nitric and nitrous acid and ammonia. The 
soil absorbs, continually, more or less of the former, and 
receives the nitrogen compounds in rain and snow. Once 
absorbed by the soil, they find access to the plant by the 
roots, as carbonates and nitrates, where they assist in the 

1 Assuming the stable manure costs him $7 a cord, he saves from $70 to 
$120 by using a thousand pounds of guano. 



FERTILIZERS. 51 

formation of the organic portion of the plant. Besides 
this direct support of plant-growth, they serve, also, the 
very important purpose of increasing the supply of inor- 
ganic plant-food ; for they aid in the disintegration of the 
soil." 

Sulphate of ammonia, a by-product of works where coal 
is used for the manufacture of gas, is one of the princi- 
pal sources for nitrogen. It looks like rather coarse salt, 
and is marketed from barrels up to huge tierces weigh- 
ing from a thousand to fifteen hundred pounds. It is 
readily soluble in water, but does not waste in the air. 
Nitrate of potash (saltpetre) is usually too dear a source 
for nitrogen to make it available. Nitrate of soda is 
found in the interior of Chili, on the surface and in the 
soil. It is a remarkably stimulating fertilizer, and, if there 
is much rain, will waste before plants can take it up. Mr. 
Lawes advises to apply it only when not more than three 
feet in depth of the soil will be moistened. From one 
hundred to two hundred pounds per acre is excellent to 
give grass a start in the spring : it should not be applied 
before the leaf has made a growth of three or four inches. 
In dry seasons it is better and cheaper than sulphate of 
ammonia, as the latter needs a degree of moisture to make 
plant-food. Still, on the whole, the sulphate of ammonia 
is considered the better investment: for, (1) it is not 
likely to be lost in the atmosphere ; (2) it is not too solu- 
ble ; (3) it has the power of clinging to the ingredients 
of the soil, clay will hold it persistently, and even pure 
sand, when washed with water, will retain a large portion 
of it ; (4) its ammonia is easily changed into nitric acid 
by ingredients in the soil. Nitrate of soda, we are told, 
"is very liable to be adulterated with white sand or 
broken quartz, and with salt or the cheap potash salts. 
. . . The purchaser should see that it dissolves entirely in 
water, and does not taste distinctly of salt." 



52 FERTILIZERS. 

I sometimes use sulphate of ammonia to hurry along 
crops of onions that are rather backward ; spreading two 
hundred pounds per acre just before they begin to bottom, 
and working it into the soil with a slide-hoe. 

Castor-Pomace is a waste from the West, being the 
cake left after the oil has been pressed from the castor- 
beans. In using it, care should be taken to keep it where 
animals cannot get at it. The men who spread it ought to 
walk with the wind ; for, though not poisonous, it is a' very 
disagreeable customer for either the eyes or mouth. It 
is a favorite manure for tobacco. I have used car-loads of 
it in former years on general crops, with good results. 

Azotin, Ammonite, Tankage. — The first two of these 
are animal wastes, which have been exposed to the vapor 
of naphtha to extract the grease. (Of late years glue- 
waste, of which, in its crude state, for years I used from 
one to two hundred cords annually, is also so treated.) 
The residue is dry and brittle, and rich in ammonia, and 
every way superior for fertilizing purposes to the same 
substances before treatment. These are not usually found 
in the retail market, but are purchased by manufacturers of 
fertilizers at prices based on their per cent of nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid, as shown by analysis in each lot offered 
for sale. Job lots of from five to ten tons can sometimes 
be purchased of brokers, or from great slaughtering estab- 
lishments like that of Armour & Co. of Chicago. Tankage 
is a waste product from the intestines and other parts : 
it contains more or less of bone, easily crumbled, and is 
not uniform in fineness. 

Dried Blood is the blood of the slaughter-house with 
most of the moisture dried from it, leaving it in good me- 
chanical condition for handling. It is very rich in nitro- 
gen, and is largely used by manufacturers of fertilizers. 
There are two grades, the light and the dark colored ; 



FERTILIZERS. 53 

the latter being kiln-dried. Sometimes, when the heat is 
too great, it is partially burned, to the destruction of a 
portion of the ammonia. The nitrogen in blood acts very 
readily as plant-food. 

Cotton-Seed Meal had better be first fed, as the ma- 
nure from it is almost as rich in fertilizing materials as 
was the meal before feeding ; for, as we have stated else- 
where, full-grown animals take but a small per cent of the 
potash, phosphoric acid, or nitrogen that exists in their 
food, while butter takes none. Occasionally spoilt cotton- 
seed meal can be found in the market that is nearly as 
good for manure as the best of meal, and, being generally 
valued at about three-fifths as much, is a very cheap source 
for nitrogen and phosphoric acid. When spoilt by trans- 
portation by salt-water, it is generally in very hard lumps, 
which have to be ground in a mill. One high recom- 
mendation that castor-pomace and cotton-seed meal have, 
is, that their manure elements are in condition for imme- 
diate use as plant-food. 

Hoof and Horn Shavings and Leather. — All of 
these are very rich in nitrogen, but it is not readily avail- 
able, and therefore has a low value as a market article. 
Hoof and horn shavings analyze as high as 11.81 nitrogen ; 
and, if first steamed and then ground, the nitrogen they 
contain becomes to a decree available. When used to 
adulterate superphosphate, as they very rarely are, being 
ground up, the particles can be readily detected by the 
microscope. Horn-waste is mostly in thin, bulky shavings, 
which are marketed in huge bags. Several years ago I 
purchased a ton, to test its availability and value, not hav- 
ing any idea of the peculiar mechanical condition of the 
article. Standing at my door one morning, I saw a team 
coming down the street with a bulk of bags piled as 
high as a large load of hay. While wondering what new 



54 FERTILIZERS. 

product had come to town, the driver stopped, when 
abreast the house, and told me he had a ton of horn- 
waste bearing my address. I got rid of the elephant the 
easiest way possible, by tumbling it into the manure cellar, 
and throwing the daily manure upon it until it disap- 
peared from view. My men found combs, more or less 
perfect, among the mass, enough to supply their families 
for a year or more. This stuff is very rich in ammonia ; 
but, though by layering it with horse manure it might be 
softened and dissolved by fermentation, yet it is so bulky 
that even at a low figure few farmers would care to invest 
in it. 

PHOSPHORIC ACID. 

This, the third substance in the three components of a 
complete fertilizer, is composed of the element phosphorus 
combined with the gas oxygen. The four great resources 
for phosphoric acid are the mineral called apatite, which 
contains niuety-two per cent of phosphate of lime, and is 
believed by some scientists to be the original source in 
nature from which phosphate of lime is derived ; the 
phosphatic guanos, which are the dung of sea-fowls from 
which the ammonia has been washed out by the rain ; the 
bones of all animals ; and the mineral phosphate rocks, 
which are the remains of ancient marine animals. Min- 
eral phosphates have within a few years been discovered 
to exist, in almost limitless extent, in North and South 
Carolina and Georgia, usually accompanying beds of marl, 
either just above or just below them, and covering hun- 
dreds of square miles. They exist largely in nodules of 
rock, having holes or depressions on their surface filled with 
worthless material, which makes it necessary to wash them 
before grinding. That they are marine remains is evident 
to the eye from their composition, which includes marine 
shells and numberless sharks' teeth, some being in a per- 



FERTILIZERS. 55 

feet state of preservation. Single teeth are sometimes 
found as large as a man's hand, weighing over two pounds. 
These nodules were carted out of fields as waste, just like 
any other rock, until the querying chemist touched them 
with his wand. The rocks are ground, and the finer por- 
tions of them, called " floats," sometimes applied directly 
to the soil; and when that is rich in organic matter, or 
when vegetable matter can be added by ploughing under 
green crops, it has been found to do quite well without 
having been treated with acid. Says Professor Dabney of 
the North-Carolina experimental station, " On sandy soils, 
or soils destitute of vegetable matter, it appears to have 
no effect whatever ; and, when tested by ammonium citrate, 
but an insignificant portion of the finest ground, called 
'floats,' was found to be soluble." Composting in fer- 
menting manure is recommended, to ascertain whether it 
cannot be dissolved in sufficient quantity to economically 
improve the manure. On some of the lands in Scotland 
it has been used with success as a paying investment with- 
out having been first treated with acid. 

These mineral phosphates are the great source for 
phosphoric acid ; for, at the rate commercial fertilizers 
are now used, bones could not begin to supply the de- 
mand. The soluble phosphoric acid, whether made from 
bones, apatite, phosphatic guanos,, or the mineral phos- 
phates of the Carolinas, have been found by careful tests 
to be all of equal value as plant-food; though the pub- 
lic, for old. acquaintance' sake, naturally prefer that made 
from bones. Some manufacturers of fertilizers, from hav- 
ing superior facilities for collecting them, and knowing 
the prejudice of the public, get the phosphoric acid that 
they use in their fertilizers wholly from bones. This much 
may be said in their favor, that, should any of the bone 
remain undissolved when treated with the acid, it would 



36 FERTILIZERS. 

still have a value of from four to six cents per pound, 
while in the finest ground Carolina rock it would be worth 
but two cents and a half. The phosphate of lime, as 'it 
exists in bones and the mineral rock, is made up of three 
atoms of lime to one atom of phosphoric acid. In this 
condition it is insoluble in water, though in bones slowly 
soluble in the soil ; but if two of the parts could be got 
rid of, then the remainder, made up of one part lime com- 
bined with phosphoric acid, would be soluble in water. This 
is accomplished by mixing sulphuric acid and water with 
finely ground bone, or burnt bone, or finely ground min- 
eral rock, when the two atoms of lime leave their home in 
the bone or the mineral, and, combining with the sulphuric 
acid, become sulphate of lime or plaster, leaving the phos- 
phoric acid combined with but one atom of lime soluble 
in water. After having been thus formed, under certain 
conditions it sometimes takes to itself another atom of 
lime, and becomes what is called 'reverted,' or, in other 
words, has turned back again to an insoluble form. But 
the two-part lime combination is readily decomposed and 
rendered soluble when acted on by the carbonic acid pres- 
ent in the soil, and when so acted, being in the very fine 
mechanical condition that the action of the acid produced, 
readily dissolves in water, and becomes plant-food. There 
are a few terms used, in speaking of phosphate of lime in 
different forms, that it will be necessary for us to become 
familiar with. The insoluble combination of three parts 
lime is often called 'bone-earth phosphate.' When the 
two parts of lime have been removed, and the phosphoric 
acid has become soluble, it is often called acid phosphate, 
but generally superphosphate of lime, the prefix i super * 
being used to indicate that the lime has a proportion of 
phosphoric acid greater than is natural to it. The term 
4 soluble bone phosphate ' is criticised by Bruckner as a 



FERTILIZERS. 57 

misnomer ; for there cannot be such a thing as ' soluble 
bone phosphate, for bone phosphate is always in an insolu- 
ble condition, and, when it is made soluble, it is no longer 
a bone phosphate." The term " available " phosphoric 
acid is sometimes used. This includes both the soluble 
and the reverted, as the latter soon becomes soluble in the 
soil. 

BONES, AND WHERE THEY COME FROM. 

The bones of land animals are composed of the follow- 
ing ingredients : — 

Gelatine, fat, and water . . . . .48 

Phosphate of lime, with a little magnesia . . .46 
Carbonate of lime ....... 04 

Potash and soda . ....... 02 

100 

The gelatine contains from three to five per cent of 
nitrogen, and the phosphate of lime (or bone phosphate) 
from eighteen to twenty-three per cent of phosphoric acid. 

Bones are brought to the fertilizer market as the waste 
of the slaughter-houses or butcher-shops, from the plains 
of South America or the prairies of the West, or as 
" char," or burnt bone, that has been used principally as 
a purifier in the process of manufacturing sugar. This 
latter is sometimes counterfeited by mixing lampblack 
with mineral phosphates. Where they have been exposed 
to the action of the elements, bones are found to have lost 
more or less of their gelatine, and hence, are not so rich 
in nitrogen. The ways of preparing bone for plant-food 
are numerous : by one class of processes the gelatine is 
saved, and by the other lost. By burning bones either in 
closed vessels — which produces the bone-black, or " char " 
— or in open fires, all the animal matter, which includes 
the gelatine and oil, is consumed, and we have only phos- 



58 FERTILIZERS. 

phate of lime remaining. To make the phosphoric acid 
in this fully soluble, we must treat it to sulphuric acid ; 
though the results from burning the bones are, to reduce 
the particles to so fine a state as to make them more or 
less available without the use of acid. 

MAKING OUR OWN SUPERPHOSPHATE. 

Dr. Nichols, in his clear, practical " Barn-Floor Lecture," 
gives, in substance, the following plan : Take a plank box 
four feet square and one foot deep. This may be simply 
water-tight ; but, if so, there must be no nails that the acid 
can reach, for it will eat them out and so make a leak : or 
it may be lined with lead, as the doctor directs ; all solder- 
ing to be done with lead solder. The box will be large 
enough to take a carboy of sulphuric acid, with the neces- 
sary quantity of phosphate material and water to make 
about a quarter of a ton of superphosphate. If we take 
finely ground bone, the result, following the doctor's plan, 
will be a pasty mass, needing mixing with muck, or 
other dry material, to get it in good mechanical condition 
for use. If, instead of bone, we use bone-black, as he ad- 
vises, we shall have, as a result, a dry mass easily handled. 
44 To make our superphosphate," says Dr. Nichols, "a car- 
boy of one hundred and sixty pounds of sulphuric acid or 
oil of vitriol (sixty-six degrees strength), three hundred and 
eighty pounds of bone-black, and ten gallons of water, 
are needed. Having first donned old clothes, and having 
at hand a little saleratus or some alkali, ready to rub on 
any spot, should, by chance, a drop of the acid spatter on 
our clothes or boots (for where it touches, if not immedi- 
ately neutralized,, it will char like fire), be sure to first 
pour in the water, and then the acid ; next, slowly add the 
bone, stirring it all the while with an old hoe of but little 
value. There will be a great commotion, — a great boil- 



FERTILIZERS. 59 

ing'and frothing and foaming and thro wing-off of heat 
with a suffocating vapor, which will make you think for a 
moment that you have drawn your last breath. But have 
courage : there have been a few millions of tons made be- 
fore your day, and the men who made them yet survive. 
Because of the suffocating vapor, it is well to do the work 
in the open air or in an open shed. 

In the report of the Connecticut experimental station 
(1881), Professor Johnson gives two methods. That pro- 
posed by Dr. Alexander Miiller, Professor Johnson thinks 
the one best adapted for domestic use of any of the pro- 
cesses involving the use of oil of vitriol : " Take one hun- 
dred pounds of ground bone, such as contains twenty 
to fifty per cent, more or less, of material coarser than 
would pass through a sieve having a one-half inch mesh, 
twenty-five pounds of oil of vitriol, and six quarts of 
water. Separate the bone by sifting into two, or, if the 
proportion of coarse bone is large, into three, parts ; using 
sieves of one-sixteenth and one-eighth inch mesh." Mix 
the coarser part of the bone, in a cast-iron or lead-lined 
vessel, with the oil of vitriol. When the bone is thor- 
oughly wet with the strong acid, add the water, stirring 
and mixing well. The addition of the water to the acid 
develops a large amount of heat, which favors the action. 
Let stand, with occasional stirring, for twenty-four hours, 
or until the coarser fragments of bone are quite soft; 
then, if three grades of bone are used, work in the next 
coarser bone, and let stand another day or two, until the 
acid has softened all the coarse bone, or has spent its 
action ; finally, dry off the mass by mixing well with the 
finest bone. In carrying out this process, the quantity of 
oil of vitriol can be varied somewhat, — increased a few 
pounds if the bone has a large proportion of coarse frag- 
ments, or diminished if it is fine." 



60 FERTILIZERS. 

Professor Stockhardt, the celebrated Saxon agricultural 
chemist, gives the following process : " From a mixture 
of sifted wood or coal ashes and earth thrown upon a 
barn or shed floor, form a circular wall so as to enclose 
a pit capable of containing one hundred weight of ground 
bone ; then make the surrounding wall of ashes so firm 
as not to yield by being trodden on ; sift off the finer 
part of the bone, and set it aside ; throw the coarser part 
into the cavity, and sprinkle it, during continued stirring, 
with three quarts of water, until the whole is uniformly 
moistened ; add gradually eleven pounds of oil of vitriol 
of sixty-six degrees, the agitation with the shovel being 
continued. A brisk effervescence of the mass will ensue, 
which will not, however, rise above the margin of the pit 
if the acid is poured on in separate small quantities. After 
twenty-four hours, sprinkle again with three quarts of 
water, add the same quantity of sulphuric acid as before, 
with the same brisk shovelling of the mass, and leave the 
substances to act for another twenty-four hours upon each 
other. Then intermix the fine bone previously sifted off, 
and finally shovel the ashes and the earth of the pit into 
the decomposed bone, until they are all uniformly mixed 
together." 

It will be noted, that the two last processes use half 
or less than half the usual quantity of acid allowed for a 
hundred pounds of bone. This is economy ; for though, 
by using more acid, we add to the weight of the mass, 
still, all that is used over and above what is necessary to 
make soluble the phosphoric acid in the bone, merely 
increases the quantity of plaster present, at a cost of about 
|28 per ton for the same, which is four times the mar- 
ket price. From the small quantity of acid used, I infer 
that it is assumed that the finest grade of bone is available 
for plant-food, with but little help from the sulphuric acid. 



FERTILIZERS. 61 

By Dr. Nichols's method, our available phosphoric acid 
from bone-black will have cost us about as follows : — 

380 pounds bone-black, at $22.50 per ton, or 1| cents per pound, $4 27 
170 " oil of vitriol, at If cents per pound . . 2 38 

80 " water. 



630 

63 one-tenth deducted for waste, steam, and evaporation. 



567 pounds, costing . . . . . . . . $6 65 

Cost per ton for home-made phosphoric acid, where bone- 
black, or "char," is used . . . . . . . 23 40 

Price in the market per ton . . . . . . . 30 00 

Cost of available phosphoric acid per pound, the average being 

17 per cent nearly 07 

Now, let us see what it would cost to make soluble the 
phosphoric acid, or, in other words, to make a superphos- 
phate, when 100 pounds of bones are used. 

52 pounds sulphuric acid, at 1 T 4 7 cents . . . $0 92 
100 " fine bone, at If cents . . . . 1 75 
25 " water. 



177 

17 loss in steam, gas, and waste. 



160 pounds, costing $2 67 

The superphosphate in a ton of bones would weigh 
160 X 20 = 3,200 pounds ; and the cost, at the same rate, 
would be, $2.67 X 20 = $53.40, which would be, for a 
ton by weight, $33.37. The average price at which it is 
sold in the market 'is $38. Difference in cost between the 
home-made and purchased is $4.63. 

To determine the profits of this operation, we must 
deduct from the $4.63 the extra freight of the acid and 



62 FERTILIZERS. 

bone over the freight on a purchased ton of the super- 
phosphate, and a certain fraction of per cent to be allowed 
on the breakage of carboys, which will occasionally occur 
in transportation ; and the remainder, plus the advantage 
of knowing that we have the real article, will be the re- 
turn for our labor. Let us next see what the home-made 
phosphoric acid will cost us when the mineral phosphate 
is used. 

The phosphate rocks of South Carolina supply us with 
our cheapest source for soluble phosphoric acid. These 
are richer in phosphate of lime than the deposits of North 
Carolina, and require half more sulphuric acid to make 
their phosphoric acid soluble. The cost of soluble phos- 
phoric acid at the present market price for material, viz., 
$13 per ton for finely ground phosphate rock, and $28 per 
ton for oil of vitriol, sixty-six degrees, is as follows : — 

1,000 pounds phosphate $6 50 

600 " sulphuric acid 8 40 

300 " water. 



1,900 " total. 

90 deducting 10 per cent for loss in gas and vapor. 



1,810 pounds, costing $14 90 

At 13 per cent, the soluble acid would be 235 pounds, 
costing $14.90, or about 6J cents per pound. 

The phosphoric acid in finely ground bone can also be 
made available by the caustic action of the potash in un- 
reached wood ashes. Dr. Nichols recommends the following 
method : " Take 1 barrel raw bone flour, 3 barrels dry un- 
reached wood ashes, 90 pounds gypsum, and 10 gallons of 
water ; make a heap of the solid materials on the barn floor, 
and add the water, stirring constantly with a hoe. The re- 
sult is perfect plant-food, containing all the elements plants 



FERTILIZERS. 63 

require in about the same proportions. Steamed bones, 
burnt bones, bone-black, or char, cannot take the place of 
the raw ground bone ; neither can any form of the German 
potash salts take the place of the ashes : for animal matter 
is needed in the bone, and potash in a caustic form in 
the ashes, to produce the chemical action/' Says Dr. 
Nichols, " Five barrels of this mixture to the acre is a 
cheap and most effective dressing for any kind of a crop." 
The material used would cost, in Massachusetts, about 
87.50. I would advise using the mixture in the hill, with 
about half the usual quantity of barn manure ploughed or 
harrowed in. In my own practice I incline more and 
more to keep the manure near the surface, that it may 
have the advantage of all rains, to moisten and help dis- 
solve the plant-food in it, for plants can take their food 
only when in a liquid or gaseous state. With this end in 
view, I surface manure for most crops, and work slightly 
under with the wheel or some other good harrow. Mr. 
Darling advises a little different method and proportions : 
ik Mix 5 barrels finely ground bone with 5 barrels of un- 
leashed hard-wood ashes ; add water sufficient to moisten 
the mass, and then cover with loam. Leave the heap three 
weeks, adding a little water if it, on examination, appears 
to be nearly dry." Mr. Darling, who is well acquainted 
with fertilizers, and might be presumed to know of what 
he is speaking, says that the mass will be worth fifty dol- 
lars per ton, which is at least double the cost of the mate- 
rials that entered into the composition of the heap. 

When bones are steamed under pressure, to extract 
from them oil and gelatine, they are left in such a state 
that when ground, I have found, on using a lot of a dozen 
tons that had stood in heaps some months after having 
been steamed, apparently as good effect on crops as though 
they had been treated with acid. I found, that, when used 



64 FERTILIZERS. 

in hills where cabbage-seed had been planted, they soon 
softened into a soap-like mass. If the gelatine is taken 
from them, with it they lose all the nitrogen ; and there- 
fore their value as a fertilizer is to be measured solely 
by the phosphoric acid which they contain, and this, I 
think, would be classed with the form known as "in- 
verted." Oil or grease in any form is not plant-food, 
hence the loss of this is no loss to the farmer. As has 
been stated, bones exposed to the weather lose more or 
less of their nitrogen, and therefore are not so valuable 
for fertilizing purposes. Professor Johnson states that 
bone char is a little more certain as a fertilizer than finely 
ground phosphate rock when the latter is applied to the 
soil in its crude state, but it needs treating with oil of 
vitriol to get from it the best results. 

REDUCTION OF UNGROUND BONE. 

Professor Johnson, in the report of the Connecticut ex- 
periment station for 1881, gives several methods for the 
reduction of unground bones, from which I make the fol- 
lowing extract : " If whole bones are treated with acid, 
suitably diluted, it acts energetically on the bones at first, 
and readily disintegrates them to a certain depth : unless, 
however, a large excess of acid be used, the action soon 
becomes sluggish, because, where the acid is in contact with 
the bone, it forms sulphate of lime. Fresh acid must, then, 
be brought in contact with the bone by abundant stirring, 
in order to renew and maintain the action. The excess of 
sulphuric acid rapidly absorbs moisture from the air : and 
the final result is, the solution of the bone, or most of it, at 
an expense of a wasteful excess of acid ; while the product 
requires moisture, with something to take up the water, 
and neutralize the excess of sulphuric acid. 

" On a small scale, cast-iron vessels could be employed. 



FERTILIZERS. 65 

A pit lined with blue flag-stones, or with hard bricks 
closely laid in common lime mortar (not cement), would 
be more suitable for large quantities. After the bones are 
disintegrated, the sloppy mass could be dried, and its excess 
of sulphuric acid utilized by admixture of ground South 
Carolina phosphate rock or other similar material, which 
would thereby be converted into superphosphate." 

The Russian method is as follows : " To 4,000 pounds of 
whole bones, take 4,000 pounds (about 90 bushels) un- 
leached hard-wood ashes, 600 pounds of fresh-burned lime, 
and 4,500 pounds (562 gallons) of water. First slack the 
lime to a powder (using part of the 4,500 pounds of water 
for this purpose), mix it with the ashes, and, placing a 
layer of bones in a suitable receptacle, — a pit in the 
ground, lined with boards, slab, or brick, — cover them with 
the mixture ; lay down more bones, and cover, and repeat 
this until half the bones, 2,000 pounds, are inter-stratified 
into the ashes and lime ; then pour on 3,600 (450 gallons) 
pounds of water, distributing it well, and let stand. From 
time to time add water, to keep the mass moist. As soon 
as the bones have softened so they can be crushed between 
the fingers to a soft, soap-like mass, take the other 2,000 
pounds of bone, and stratify them in another pit, with the 
contents of the first. When the whole is soft, shovel out 
to dry ; and finally mix with dry muck or loam, enough to 
make it handle well." 

Professor Johnson's method is as follows: "Arrange a 
circular layer of bones, closely laid, on a bed, a foot thick, 
of good loam, under shelter ; wet them from a watering- 
pot, and sprinkle them over with wood ashes, enough to 
fill all the chinks ; then give a coat of gypsum ; put upon 
that a few inches of muck or loam, adding, all along, as 
much water as will well moisten the earth and ashes, but 
not more than the mass can readily absorb ; then place 



66 FERTILIZERS. 

another layer of bones, with ashes, gypsum, loam or muck, 
and water, as before, until the heap is built up several feet ; 
finally cover with loam, and keep moist by adding 'water 
from time to time, but not enough to run away from the 
bed. When the bones are sufficiently softened, mix well 
together with the loam used on the bed, and cover with 
loam." Professor Johnson thinks this plan would require 
more time, but perhaps would be as efficacious, and more 
convenient than the process last described. 

Fifteen or twenty years I tried to reduce a lot of bones 
by a method like this, except that some lime was used with 
the ashes. The results were not satisfactory ; possibly the 
lot was kept too moist. 

" A third method suggested is by inter-stratifying them 
with fermenting horse-dung, and keeping the mass moist 
by covering with loam, and adding occasionally urine or 
liquor from the dung heaps." 

Professor Johnson makes an estimate of the commercial 
value of the product made by the Russian process : — 

" Four thousand pounds of average bones contain 4 per 
cent, or 160 pounds, of nitrogen, and 20 per cent, or 800 
pounds, of phosphoric acid ; 4,000 pounds of good wood 
ashes, unleached, contain 8i per cent, or 340 pounds, of 
potash, and 2 per cent, or 80 pounds, of phosphoric acid. 
Therefore 

" 160 pounds of nitrogen, worth 20 cents . . . $32 00 
880 pounds of phosphoric acid, worth 9 cents . 79 20 

380 pounds of potash, worth 5| cents . . . 18 70 

$129 90 

" Admitting that there is no loss of nitrogen, and no loss 
or gain of water, and taking no account of the loam, the 
value of $ 129.90 would belong to 13,100 pounds, or 6| tons, 
of the finished lime compost. The cost of one ton would 
accordingly be, in round numbers, $20." 



FERTILIZERS. 67 

The cost of the raw material would be about as follows : — 

4,000 pounds of bone, at $20 per ton $40 00 

90 bushels of unleached ashes, at 33 cents per bushel . . 30 00 
o'OO pounds of lime 2 00 



$72 00 



Deducting one-tenth as waste in gases and evaporation, as $129 90 
claimed by manufacturers of fertilizers . . . 12 99 



$116 91 
Deducting cost of raw material . . . . . . 72 00 



We have left, to pay for our labor ..... $44 91 

•At a meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 
Mr. William Hunt made an interesting statement of his 
method of making the phosphoric acid in bones available. 
He bought the elements bone and ashes, which he used 
freely on grapes and strawberries, and was much pleased 
with the results. He bought from three to ten tons of 
bones per year, and ashes when he could get them. He 
found that it did not pay to use acids to reduce bones: the 
same money in potash would produce better results. Last 
year he used from 1,800 to 2,000 pounds of potash, which 
cost 4J cents per pound. It comes in casks of about four 
hundred pounds each, and is as hard as stone. He uses 
four or five parts of bone to one of potash. The bone, 
which is ground, but not very fine, is spread in the barn 
cellar. The potash is put, in large pieces, in a bag, and 
there broken with a sledge-hammer, and put in a tight bar- 
rel, into which was poured boiling water, and dissolved to 
saturation. In handling the potash, care must be taken not 
to get it on the clothes or person. It is then turned on 
the bone, which sets up a great heat, evolving the nitrogen, 
to absorb which, plaster is used. It is allowed to remain 
two or three weeks, and is turned over several times, and 



68 FERTILIZERS. 

every time covered with plaster. It is considerable trouble 
to reduce bones in this way, but it gives a better return 
for the money than buying fertilizers in the market. After 
the potash has acted on the bone, large pieces can be 
crushed in the fingers. He has used no other fertilizer 
than this on his strawberries, and it is equally good for 
grapes. He has put no animal manure on his grapes since 
they were set out, but either ashes or bone and potash; 
and this treatment has been so satisfactory that he will 
continue it. A neighbor has used a similar preparation of 
bone and potash on his pear-trees, making the fruit better 
and fairer. Mr. Hunt's method would be apt to volatilize 
a large portion of the nitrogen from the bones by the rapid 
caustic action of the potash. 

THE THEORIES OF FERTILIZING. 

My little treatise, aiming at facts, can hardly stop to 
discuss theories. When the able men who have spent 
their lives in investigating plant-feeding differ fundamen- 
tally in their views, which shall we, simple farmers, pin 
our faith to? Boussingault values manures in proportion 
to the ammonia they contain, making no account of the 
mineral constituents. Leibnitz bases his value on what 
he finds in the ash, and ignores the ammonia qualities. 
Ville, in his theory of manuring, advocating the use of 
nitrogen for wheat, potash for legumes, such as beans, 
pease, etc., and phosphoric acid for roots, such as turnips, 
parsnips, etc., considering potash — lime in some form — 
and nitrogen as making a complete manure, advocates 
manuring on poor soil with a combination of all of these 
for the first crop, no matter what that may be, to the 
end that the soil may be made a fertile one ; and, after 
the first crop, to make each year an application only of the 
one element which is the preponderating one in the crop 



FERTILIZERS. 69 

we plant, varying the kind of crop each season, so that 
each element in turn will be necessary, and thus, in the 
course of three years, each will have been applied. I un- 
derstand he holds, that, by this system of manuring, Ave 
may continue indefinitely to raise crops, using yearly not 
more than a single element for each. 

The two theories that are especially advocated in our 
day are what may be called the Stockbridge and the anti- 
Stockbridge. The professor gave a great impulse to the 
use of fertilizers when he laid his theory before the pub- 
lic. It had in it a fascinating simplicity, and seemed to 
present a short cut to success in farming. As tersely 
stated, in its most advanced form, by the company who 
are authorized to compound the formulas that bear his 
name, it is, " To feed plants those elements found by 
analysis to enter into their composition, and which they 
do not obtain from the soil or air in sufficient quantity ; 
to feed the plant rather than the soil, and, in the feeding 
of the plant, to select these forms of plant-food which 
experience has shown are best adapted to produce perfect 
growth." The objections of those who do not believe in 
formulas for different crops are, in brief, that the formu- 
las are not constant, having varied in the course of four 
years, — that for corn, from 4.7 to 6.2 for nitrogen, 3.8 to 
7.2 for phosphoric acid, and 6.2 to 7 for potash ; in that 
for the potato, from 3 to 4.-4 in nitrogen, from 3.8 to 
7 in phosphoric acid, and from 4.9 to 10.2 in potash : 
while in that for onions, the variation was from 3.1 to 3.9 
in nitrogen, 5.3 to 6.4 in phosphoric acid, and 7.9 to 8.3 
in potash. In studying the tables of differences, it is well 
to bear in mind the remark of the distinguished Professor 
Voelcker : " Before a manure can be obtained that is spe- 
cially adapted to particular soils or crops, it is necessary 
that enterprising and intelligent men incur heavy expense, 



TO FERTILIZEES. 

in trying all kinds of fertilizing mixtures, before they can 
succeed in ascertaining the states of combinations, and 
the relative proportions in which these shall be combined, 
in order to produce the best practical results." 

The original formulas published by Professor Stock- 
bridge, in which his plant-food was determined solely by 
analyzing the plant, — as further experience has thrown 
light on the subject, the feeding-power of the plant hav- 
ing been found to be a factor of importance, — have been 
considerably modified. He has increased his phosphoric 
acid for potatoes and grass about thirty-three per cent, for 
corn fifty per cent, and in the two latter has decreased the 
nitrogen about twenty-five per cent. In pease and beans 
he has increased the phosphoric acid about fifty per cent, and 
has decreased the nitrogen : and, further, some of the finer 
distinctions have been dropped; and the formulas are now 
generalized so far as to have in several instances the same 
formula for several different crops, in this respect approach- 
ing to the " Ville " theory of plant-feeding. The objec- 
tion that the wide latitude shown in the extremes in the 
nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid in the corn, potato, 
and onion formulas, elevates them in real value at pres- 
ent but little above a good superphosphate, has a degree 
of weight. To my mind, it arises from the fact that 
formulas, being for general use, can be compounded only 
in a general way, by reason of the many differences in 
the natural condition of various soils, the additional vari- 
ations in the manurial elements which they may have 
acquired through years of manuring, and the difference 
between crops in their feeding capacity. Here, I think, 
we have the weakness of the Stockbridge or any other 
formulas. They do not take cognizance of the state of 
the soil to which they are to be applied ; neither can they 
do so, except in a general way 5 for otherwise they would 



FERTILIZERS. 71 

have to be modified to suit each particular case presented. 
It is true that Professor Lawes says, that, after an experi- 
ence of fort}' years, he knows little of certainty about the 
soil ; what he has learned is, what plants feed on. This 
seems to sustain the Stockbridge theory ; but when he 
adds that he has learned, that, if he puts on an excess of 
phosphoric acid or potash for any crop, he gets it back 
in the next crop, his argument is one for the use cf any 
good fertilizer, rather than a formula. We all expect to 
know more of the feeding-habits of plants, and the artificial 
condition and natural character of soils, as years pass 
on ; and, as this knowledge increases, the theory will have 
the advantage of it, and be modified accordingly. The 
Stockbridge theory gives us a starting-point. If we are to 
wait, in all patience, until science points out a perfect way, 
meanwhile we stagnate. 

Take the case of Mr. Bartholomew, the results of whose 
soil-tests are frequently alluded to in the reports of the 
Connecticut experiment station. By testing his soil, he has 
really learned something of great value to him, though the 
man of science may well say, that, as a scientific experi- 
ment, it lacks lots of conditions. Now, can any one believe 
that Mr. Bartholomew need rest simply on the fact that 
phosphate is the ruling element needed in his corn-crop ? 
Can he not, by studying the effects of combinations of 
fertilizers, and the modifications they receive by different 
crops on different soils, gradually work nearer and nearer 
to just the best proportion of each fertilizer to use in each 
combination he makes for each crop ? and is not this work- 
ing up to formulas ? Just as England, Scotland, and the 
United States have each their man to thank for giving 
vitality to the steam-engine, entirely aside from the man 
who may have originated the elementary ideas, and will 
always hold him in remembrance, though the relation be- 



72 FERTILIZERS. 

tween the original engine and the after-product may be 
more that of striking contrast than one of resemblance, 
so, I* believe, we farmers ought always to feel a debt of 
gratitude to the professor for starting on the farm the 
formula system of manuring, thus insuring it a future 
outside of the laboratory. All manufacturers of formulas, 
as far as I have observed, now take into consideration 
what they have ascertained of the feeding-habits of plants. 
Now, let each farmer who uses formulas, ascertain, by 
actual trial, the peculiar needs of his own soil, and modify 
the application of these formulas accordingly, and he will 
certainly have something better in his hands than the 
best superphosphate in the market. 

TESTING OUR SOILS. 

Professor Atwater was the first in this country, as far 
as my knowledge extends, to digest into a practical plan 
the idea of testing our soils to ascertain which of the three 
elements is especially lacking. The test is most satis- 
factory on poor or worn-out soils. The fertilizers with 
which to make these tests are put up seven in number, 
making a full set, which is sold for seven dollars, — the 
bare cost. The sets are not sold in parts ; they contain 
the elements singly and in combination. The quantity of 
each lot is sufficient for one-tenth of an acre, making fer- 
tilizing material sufficient for seven-tenths in all. Corn, 
potatoes, or any other crop, may be planted, leaving two 
of the plots without any manure, on the remaining tenth 
using the same value of barn manure. The design of these 
experiments is, to enable farmers to settle the question in 
which of the three elements, viz., nitrogen, potash, or 
phosphoric acid, the soil is especially deficient, and which 
combination of them is most needed to produce the crop. 
Besides the set to settle these questions, others are put up 



FERTILIZERS. 73 

to enable the farmer to determine what form of nitrogen, 
potash, or phosphoric acid is best adapted to his soil, or to 
produce any particular crop ; also a set to determine what 
special fertilizer was most profitable for any special crop. 
These sets are supplied by the Mapes Formula and Peru- 
vian Guano Company, 158 Front Street, New York ; also 
by the Bowker Fertilizer Company of Boston. I believe 
Messrs. Mapes, and probably Bowker & Co., send out 
explanatory circulars, giving full instructions how to use 
them. Several of our agricultural papers have been very 
active in encouraging this good work. I have used one 
of these test sets on my land with profit. 

One fact may be safely inferred without a test; viz., 
that all old pasture-lands, when brought under cultivation, 
especially need phosphoric acid to give back to the soil 
the great draught that has been made upon it by the 
phosphate carried away in the milk of cows and in the 
bones of the young calf. I advocate the Stockbridge 
theory as modified by the soil-test plan advocated by 
Professors Atwater and Johnson : first, to determine by 
actual tests what our soils lack, and then use the Stock- 
bridge formulas, modified by the knowledge so obtained. 
The fundamental idea is, that, to use manures economi- 
cally, we must select those which fit the wants of the 
special cases where they are to be applied. The old idea 
of the practicability of analyzing the soil to determine 
what plant-food it is necessary to apply, is exploded. It 
is found, that, if ten times the amount of plant-food for 
any crop is mixed with the soil, the chances are not one 
in ten that the chemist can detect its presence. The crop 
can do it far better than the chemist can. A few pounds 
of guano applied to an acre of land would be found by 
the crop, and make a difference in the yield ; while Pro- 
fessor Johnson tells us, that, even if a thousand pounds 



74 FERTILIZERS. 

were applied to an acre, the chemist might not be able to 
detect its presence. 

A FAITH THAT IS DANGEROUS. — BUYING CHEAP FERTIL- 
IZERS. 

> 

There is a class of farmers who have a degree of faith 
in fertilizers, but regard them as a sort of " hodge-podge " 
combination of various ingredients sold as making things 
grow, which sometimes hit it, and at other times miss it, 
either because the maker missed his guess, or because he 
deliberately intended to cheat his customers. Believing, 
therefore, that one fertilizer is just about as likely to be as 
good as another, they very naturally buy the cheapest in 
the market, regarding the whole business as a mere lot- 
tery. The want of knowledge that lies back of this 
view of fertilizers reminds me of the doings of one of my 
foremen some years ago. I sent him various materials for 
a compost heap, and also a lot of unleached ashes, guano, 
and hen-dung, with particular directions what to mix, and 
which of the various materials to keep separate. When I 
came, a while after, to view the state of affairs, I asked to 
see his manure piles. He showed me his compost heap. 
I then asked for the ashes, hen manure, and guano. " It's 
all there, boss," said he, pointing to the compost heap ; 
"and, I tell you, it's the greatest manure heap you ever 
saw." I thought so, too : hen manure, guano, unleached 
ashes, glue-waste, rotten sea manure, tumbled together 
pellmell, and the free ammonia generated filling the air 
with its pungent fumes ! I had it covered at once with 
dry muck, and then endeavored to enlighten him on the 
difference between a " hodge-podge " of material, and a 
compost heap intelligently put together. 

I was told of an instance where last season a market 
gardener, a man of superior ability in some departments 



FERTrLTZEES. 75 

of his business, having used fertilizers in former years, 
believing that the more of a good thing the better, in 
planting his drill-crops, cut a hole in each bag of fertilizing 
material, when two men would walk along the rows, carry- 
ing the bag between them until it was empty. A gentle- 
man told me, who saw his potatoes dug, that at that time 
the fertilizer would turn up two or three inches deep under 
them. This gardener used sixty or more tons in this way ; 
and more or less of his crops, as might have been antici- 
pated, were any thing but a success. 

The words " cheap " and " cheat " are almost synony- 
mous when applied to fertilizers offered for sale. Consider 
the matter a moment. Potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric 
acid, the three ingredients which give to them about all 
their value, have become regular market articles in every 
form in which they are found, whether in bones, fish-waste, 
phosphate rock, German potash salts, slaughter-house waste, 
cotton-seed, tankage, or in any other combination in which 
they come into the market. When a dealer has any of these 
for sale, and offers them to manufacturers of fertilizers, he 
(the manufacturer) takes an average sample of the lot, 
puts it into the hands of his chemist, who at once analyzes 
it, and reports what per cent of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 
or potash, as may be, the article contains. The manufactur- 
ers purchase it on that basis ; viz., so much per pound for 
either ingredient : in valuing it, reference being had to the 
degree of availability in which they exist in the articles 
offered. Potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid being, 
therefore, regular market articles, how can any manu- 
facturer undersell his fellow-dealers with a fertilizer of 
equal value f The whole thing is governed by the common 
rules of business. It can only be by using more capital, 
and so buying his raw materials on a larger scale, and thus 
getting the reduction that any man in any business gets ; 



76 FERTILIZERS. 

or by improved machinery, improved processes of manu- 
factures ; or, finally, by selling more than his fellow-dealers, 
and so being able to afford a smaller profit on each ton . The 
difference in the selling-price of fertilizers turns, then, on 
how much of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid enter 
into their composition, modified by the above-named cir- 
cumstances. 

The analyses published by the able chemists at the 
head of the various agricultural colleges are the great 
check on frauds, and, in general, a very safe guide to the 
farmer as to the richness of the various fertilizers in the 
market, though they do not pretend to be able to tell 
whether any particular one is cheaper for him to use than 
barn manure, is best adapted to his soil, or to produce 
profitably any particular crop : this is a matter that the 
farmer must determine for himself. The fertilizer laws of 
the different States have driven most of the " cheap and 
cheat " class from the market. If any one is interested 
in knowing what these laws have accomplished for the far- 
mer, let him read the last chapter of Bruckner's work on 
" American Manures," where he will find analyses of 
eleven fertilizers that were advertised in 1870 for an aver- 
age price of $50 per ton, the average of whose real value, 
aside from the insoluble phosphoric acid in their composi- 
tion, proved to be but $13.75 per ton. It is good advice 
to buy no fertilizer of which you have seen no analysis 
published in the bulletins or annual reports of some of our 
agricultural colleges. There is one just now being sold in 
Eastern Massachusetts by a new firm which is little or 
nothing more than a mixture of ashes, lime, and salt. 

With the best of helps, we take as much risk in our pur- 
chases as wise men should take ; for the chemist does not 
tell us (can he ?) whether our phosphoric acid was derived 
from bones or the mineral rock, or our nitrogen from fish 
or flesh, or the practically worthless leather scraps. 



FERTILIZERS. 77 



MAKING OUR OWN FERTILIZERS. 

There is one way by which a fertilizer can be afforded 
at a price lower than the standard price of the three ele- 
ments that enter into its composition; and that is, by using 
such local waste materials as are not accessible to dealers 
in general. Dead animals and surplus fish supply these 
material in some localities. If farmers in the vicinity of 
large towns would start some one in the business of work- 
ing up the carcasses of horses, cows, and other animals 
that die from disease, accidents, or are killed because they 
can no longer serve their masters, they might have a cheap 
source for superphosphate ; for in the hides, manes and 
tails, oil, grease, gelatine, hoofs, and horns, the manufac- 
turer would find sources of income which would enable 
him to offer the waste, in the shape of a superphosphate, 
at a figure below the average market rate. 

Where it is necessary to have heavy machinery to grind 
bone or other materials, it is a question whether either the 
individual farmer or an association of farmers can make 
it a profitable investment. I know one instance where 
farmers associated, and, buying machinery, ground bones, 
treated them with acid, and so made their own superphos- 
phate. The leader in the enterprise stated that it did not 
pay when they could get an honestly made phosphate at 
the average market price. The Cumberland Superphos- 
phate Company, in Maine, an association of individuals 
who have in their employ experienced chemists, was organ- 
ized, I understand, for the special purpose of supplying the 
members of the association with an honest superphosphate 
as cheaply as it could be afforded. I am told that pecuni- 
arily this is not a successful enterprise ; and any one who 
looks at the analysis in the Maine " Report of the Inspector 
of Fertilizers " will see the reason why, — they are selling 



78 FERTILIZERS. 

an over-good article. If the farmers of Maine will buy 
Red Beach at 845 per ton, when the analysis shows a valua- 
tion of but $26.19, and pass by Cumberland, which -sells 
$40.83 worth of fertilizers for $40, why, they are not as 
shrewd Yankees as they have the credit of being. Here 
naturally arises the question, why a fertilizer that by 
analysis is shown to be of a low grade in value, sometime? 
may give better returns than one of higher cost. It is 
generally because it may have had more of one of the three 
elements than the better fertilizer, and hence may have 
been better adapted for some particular crop to which it 
was applied ; whereas the more costly one would have 
shown returns commensurate with its cost had it been 
applied to the right crop. Where bone-black, ground 
bone, or finely ground phosphatic rock is used, it will pay 
farmers to make their own superphosphate when the pro- 
cess of Dr. Nichols, and especially that of Professor 
Stockhardt and Dr. M tiller, are followed, as given on p. 
61. For the past three years I have made, more or less, 
my own superphosphate. 

THE MANUFACTURERS OF FERTILIZERS. 

I have no war to wage against the manufacturers of 
fertilizers. The degree of dishonest} r and carelessness or 
ignorance of former years is now rendered impossible in 
many localities by State laws and the frequent reports of 
the agricultural chemists. The manufacturer is a neces- 
sity that we farmers cannot do without. He brings to the 
business the knowledge and the capital necessary to handle 
the various great wastes in the most economical manner to 
get therefrom fertilizing materials. Most of them have 
one, and some of them two, chemists constantly in their 
employ ; and one, I know, has ten thousand dollars invested 
in a building wholly devoted to the single department of 



FERTILIZERS. 79 

repairing machinery. They have the expense of work- 
men, clerks, costly rents, travelling-agents, to meet (one 
has eleven), and allow a profit to the retail dealer. 
While those engaged in many occupations turn their capi- 
tal several times a year, making more or less of profit every 
time, the sales of the manufacturer of fertilizers are lim- 
ited to a few months in the year ; and these are made on 
long time ; so that, from the date they invest money in 
crude materials, to the time they receive pay for the same, 
is nearer two years than one. In the table from our ex- 
perimental stations, comparing the value of the various 
fertilizers with the market price of the materials that 
enter into their composition, we rarely see credit given 
for the bags in which they are packed. These must cost 
not far from a dollar and a half for each ton of fertilizers ; 
while many rot, and have to be replaced before they leave 
the establishments. 

From considerations like these, it appears but fair for us 
farmers to concede to the manufacturer, as but his just 
due, from three to five dollars per ton for his fertilizer 
over the retail market price of the potash, nitrogen, and 
phosphoric acid that enter into its composition. Professor 
Dabney gives good testimony to the honesty of manufac- 
turers when he says, that, of the six hundred samples of 
fertilizers analyzed in North Carolina, but one was found 
in which there was an attempt to defraud in the element 
ammonia; and that, if I remember correctly, was in an 
imported English superphosphate. 

LEATHER- WASTE. 

This consists ,of the scraps of the shoe-manufactories, 
the waste from the uppers and soles. In many of the, 
establishments it is burnt as fuel, to which there is the 
objection that the creosote formed from it destroys the mor- 



80 FERTILIZERS. 

tar in chimneys. Owing to its richness in ammonia, and 
the facility with which, when steamed under pressure, it 
granulates into a fine blood-colored powder, or readily 
grinds up after being charred, it has been largely used by 
ignorant or unprincipled manufacturers as a source for 
nitrogen in their fertilizers, several of the States having, 
until recently, required by law the per cent of nitrogen, 
without designating in what form it should or should not 
be. The gelatine present, though rich in ammonia, is 
rendered by the tannic acid nearly insoluble, and hence 
for annual crops is practically worthless. This adultera- 
tion has been carried on to a far greater extent than the 
public is aware. Tens of thousands of tons have been so 
disposed of, as I have been informed by those behind the 
scenes. In the Massachusetts Agricultural Report for 
1882, it is stated that leather scraps were offered in Boston, 
early in the season, in a fine state of subdivision, at $5.50 
per ton ; but later, in the month of May, they advanced to 
815 per ton. The cause of this advance, it would require 
no great wit to perceive. It is said that from four thou- 
sand to five thousand tons were sold in and about Boston 
that year, to be used in the manufacture of fertilizers. If 
every State would require the dealers to state the source 
from which their nitrogen was obtained, the adulteration 
would soon cease, for every chemist has at hand the 
means of detecting its presence. Though the process is a 
slow one, leather scraps, even the coarsest, from sole 
leather, will eventually decay ; but this fact gives no value 
to them for the growing of annual crops, for they need to 
be years in a mass before they will turn black and rot. I 
have used tons of them around currant-bushes, where 
they serve to keep down weeds, and in the course of years 
entirely disappear, becoming plant-food. If used into 
tillage-land, they become a nuisance, for more or less of 



FERTILIZERS. 81 

them will keep working to the surface, where the hoe, 
coming in contact with their tough substance, will be 
bounced out of place, with the clanger of cutting off the 
plants among which you are at work. The only other 
really profitable use of these scraps by farmers is for 
covering over blind drains, to keep the soil from sifting 
clown among the stones or tile. I have used them in 
covering miles of such drains, and know of nothing as 
good, especially where the sole-leather waste is used. I 
have one that was made nearly thirty years ago, where the 
scraps — over small stones, with tile below — appear to be 
as useful as at the first. 

SOME FACTS AND SUGGESTIONS. 

In using potash or phosphoric acid in any form, we will 
not forget that it never wastes in the soil to any extent ; 
and, if there is more applied than a crop needs, the next 
crop will find it. " Fertilizers rich in ammonia, Peruvian 
guano, sulphate of ammonia, etc., should be applied, a 
little at a time, and often." Clayey soils do not, as a rule, 
need so much potash or nitrogen as phosphoric acid. 
Nitrogen tends to promote leaf-growth. Fertilizers ap- 
plied to poor land produce more effect than when applied 
to rich land. In twenty-five experiments with various fer- 
tilizers, under the direction of Professor Atwater, it was 
found that the most important factors in the growth of 
the corn-crop were, first, the soil ; next, the season. It 
Avas a sensible and suggestive remark of Mr. Bartholomew, 
that, if the bone in the soil does not all decompose the first 
year, the nitrogen contained in it goes over with it — is 
not wasted. If but one of the commercial fertilizers is to 
be used, let it be bone. The finer the bone, and the finer 
and dryer the fertilizer, the more valuable it is. " The 
most profitable fertilizers," says Professor Atwater, "are 



82 FERTILIZERS. 

those that fit special cases. ... To compost fish-waste with 
plaster and earth is more economical than to treat it with 
acid." " The soil," says Professor Ville, " is the medium 
in which we convert at pleasure phosphoric acid, potash, 
and nitrogen into any crop we choose to grow." When 
the animal matter in bones deca} r s, the phosphoric acid in 
the bones, say our scientific teachers, is in a reverted con- 
dition. Says Professor Atwater, " The common impression 
among farmers, that the best use of artificial fertilizers is 
to supplement farm manures, is doubtless, in ordinary 
circumstances, correct." Both Mr. Lawes and Professor 
Ville are of the opinion that the largest crops are grown 
by chemical manures. Salt-cake (sulphate of soda) con- 
tains about forty per cent of sulphuric acid, and is an 
excellent material to check decomposition. Under this 
plea, it is used by some manufacturers with altogether too 
liberal a hand in their fertilizers, for of itself it is of but 
little value as plant-food. Nitre-cake, the refuse from 
the manufacture of nitric acid, contains about forty-seven 
per cent of sulphuric acid, and is an excellent material to 
scatter over manure heaps, to hold the ammonia. The 
difference between nitrogen in barnyard manure and in 
ammoniacal salts (sulphate of ammonia, etc.) was strik- 
ingly shown in some of the experiments of Mr. Lawes, 
where forty-one pounds of nitrogen in the latter produced 
as great effect on a crop of barley as did two hundred 
pounds in the former. Dr. Voelcker found in perfectly 
fresh horse-dung but one pound of free ammonia in fifteen 
tons, though there was nitrogen enough to supply one 
hundred and forty pounds of it. This suggests the wis- 
dom of first composting, and so decomposing and making 
it soluble, when we want prompt effects. Barnyard ma- 
nures decompose faster in porous (sandy or gravelly) soils 
than in compact ones. Says Professor Goessmann, " Good 



FERTILIZERS. 83 

manuring increases the quality as well as the quantity of 
our crops. . . . Besides salt-cake (as mentioned above), 
nitre-cake, ground oyster-shells, spent lime, plaster, and 
soil are mixed with ground bone as preservatives, dryers, 
or adulterants." 

In purchasing our elements out of which to make fertil- 
izers, their degree of fineness or dryness has an important 
bearing on their value. Says Professor Goessmann, " The 
mechanical condition of any fertilizing material, simple or 
compound, deserves the most serious consideration of 
farmers, when articles of a similar chemical character are 
offered for their choice. The degree of pulverization con- 
trols, almost without exception, under similar conditions, 
the rate of solubility, and the more or less rapid diffusion 
of the different articles of plant-food throughout the soil. 
The state of moisture exerts a no less important influence 
on the pecuniary value in case of one and the same kind 
of substance. Two samples of fish fertilizers, although 
equally pure, may differ from fifty to a hundred per cent in 
commercial value, on account of mere difference in moisture. 
If obliged to increase our home resources of manure, he 
advises to compound fertilizers from the most suitable stock 
in the market. Although a first trial of that course of 
action may not realize all the advantages expected, there 
can be no doubt about the correctness of the statement, 
that the best financial success on the part of the farmer 
can ultimately be secured only by the gradual adoption of 
that system of manuring the farm. Our leading dealers in 
fertilizers begin to realize the late tendency in their trade, 
and are preparing to meet the call." 



84 



FERTILIZERS. 



COMMERCIAL RETAIL VALUES OF FERTILIZING INGRE- 
DIENTS IN RAW MATERIALS AND CHEMICALS. 



For the Years 



Nitrogen in sulphate of ammonia . . . 

" " nitrate of soda 

" " dried and finely ground fish . 
Organic nitrogen in guano and fine-ground 

blood and meat 

Organic nitrogen in cotton-seed, linseed meal 

and in castor-pomace 

Organic nitrogen in finely ground bone . • 
" " " fine, medium bone . 

" " " medium bone . „ . 

" " " coarse, medium bone 

" " " " bone, horn shav 

ings, hair, and fish-scraps 

Phosphoric acid soluble in water .... 
" " " ammonia citrate . , 

" " insoluble in dry, finely 

ground fish, and in fine bone 

Phosphoric acid insoluble in fine, medium 

bone 

Phosphoric acid insoluble in medium bone . 
" " " " coarse, medium 

bone 

Phosphoric acid insoluble in coarse bone . . 
" " " " finely ground 

rock phosphate 

Potash as high-grade sulphate 

" ' kainite 

" muriate 



Ci 


;nts per Pound 


1881. 


1882. 


1883. 


22* 


29 


26 


26 


26 


20 


20 


24 


23 


20 


24 


23 


16 


18 


18 


15 


17 


17 


14 


15 


15 


13 


14 


14 


12 


13 


13 


11 


11 


11 


12* 


12* 


11 


9 


9 


8 


6 


6 


6 


5* 


5* 


5* 


5 


5 


5 


4* 


4* 


4* 


4 


4 


4 


3* 


3 


■ 2| 


7* 


7 


7 


5* 


5 


4* 


4* 


5 


4* 



1884. 



22 

18 

20 

18 

18 
18 
16 
14 
12 

10 

10 

9 

6 

5* 
5 

4 

2i 

Ti 
4i 



The wholesale rates average about twenty per cent higher 
than the retail rates of this table. As a rule, fertilizing 
materials are cheapest in the fall and winter. At the time 



FERTILIZERS. 85 

of -writing (spring of 1885), nitrogen in some forms is 
somewhat higher than last season. 

The word " organic " in the above table may be practi- 
cally ignored by ns farmers when figuring on these 
fertilizers. The table is an estimate of relative commercial 
values agreed upon by the chemists and directors of the 
experimental stations of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
New Jersey. In point of fact, competition forced prices 
below these rates, as will be noted in the following table, 
which gives the prices at which the nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash were sold in 1884 by leading dealers in 
various combinations : — 

Cents. 

16.9 
17.1 
18.3 
15.8 
12.5 
20.2 



Average cost per pound of nitrogen in nitrate of soda 

" " " " in sulphate of ammonia 

" " " " in dried blood . 

" " " " in ammonite and tankage 

" " " " in dried fish 

" " " " in castor-pomace 



" " " " in hair manure . . 10.3 

Average cost of phosphoric acid from bone-black, soluble in water, 7.3 

cents ; insoluble, 2.9 cents. 
Average cost of soluble phosphoric acid from South Carolina rock, 
8.6 cents; insoluble, 1.9 cents. 

Cents. 

Average cost of potash per pound in muriate . . . .3.7 

" " in kainite . . . .4.0 

" " " " in sulphate . . .7.2 

The above are the retail prices, delivered on cars or 
boats. 

Professor Cook of the New Jersey experimental station, 
from which valuable report the above table was taken, 
states that the samples analyzed by the station in 1884, in 
five cases out of six contained more plant-food than their 
minimum guaranties demanded: they were better than 
the manufacturers claimed,. 



86 FERTILIZERS. 



COMMERCIAL AND AGRICULTULRAL VALUES OF FERTIL- 
IZERS. 

The prices in the above tables are the market or com- 
mercial value of the three elements. Says Professor Cook, 
" The agricultural value of a fertilizer — in other words, the 
profit which its use secures for a farmer in an increased 
crop — is in no way indicated by its market price. Reliable 
information concerning agricultural values must be sought 
upon the farm, and not by the guesses of the farmer, but 
from the actual weight of the crops grown under known 
conditions, and upon accurately measured areas." Hot or 
cold, wet or dry, seasons, will affect the results obtained 
from fertilizers, but cannot be said to affect their agricul- 
tural value ; in fact, the results of numerous experiments 
demonstrate that these extremes have a greater effect on 
crops fed on barn manure than on those fed by fertilizers. 

WHERE TO OBTAIN OUR FERTILIZING MATERIAL AT THE 

LOWEST COST. 

The table directs us for what substances to inquire 
when we go into the general market. But there are out- 
side sources which are more or less accessible to the aver- 
age farmer. Even in the varied products of the farm, the 
three elements vary greatly in cost. 

Professor George Caldwell makes the following esti- 
mates of the value of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric 
acid in various combinations. Assuming that in 1884 
potash could be purchased at 5 cents per pound, phos- 
phoric acid at 9, and nitrogen at from 16 to 18 cents, 
then, at these rates, — 



FERTILIZERS. 



87 



In cow manure, at $1.16 per thousand pounds 

(about $7 per cord) 

In horse manure, at $1.54 per thousand 

pounds (about $6.90 per cord) 

In rock-weed, at $1.21 per thousand pounds 

(about $4.25 per cord) 

In night-soil, at $0.43 per thousand pounds, 

the price of collecting 

In tanners waste (clippings of hides and 

hair), at $0.78 per thousand pounds . . . 
In hen manure, at $4 per thousand pounds, 



Cost of 
Nitrogen 
per Lb. 



Cents. 
19 
14 
20i 

9-8- 
L \ o 

1 

27 



Cost of 
Potash. 



Cents. 
6 

6^ 



8A 



Cost of 
Phos- 
phoric 
Acid. 



Cents. 
11 

1A 



15 



The tanner's waste would decompose slowly, and there- 
fore its components would practically be of less value than 
in the other manures named. At 43 cents per thousand 
pounds, night-soil would cost about 82.50 per cord. As 
average night-soil is worth about $6 per cord, the professor 
evidently means a purer article than we farmers usually 
find. Most farmers will be surprised at the low value 
given hen manure in the table, but it requires a pretty 
good article to reach even that valuation. Hold fast to 
the fundamental principle, that no more value in potash, 
phosphoric acid, and nitrogen can come from the manure of 
any animal than is fed to it in its food, minus the quantity 
of these elements taken up to maintain its vitality, and 
perform its various functions, which in fowls includes the 
eggs laid and the annual growth of feathers. And next 
consider the fact that two bushels of corn will support an 
average fowl a year, and that this grain contains about 
38 cents in value of the three elements ; and, finally, that 
of this, but about half can be found in the manure, of 



88 FERTILIZERS. 

which but about half can be saved, making a little over 
a quarter of the 38 cents in the manure saved from a 
fowl annually. Where we are so situated that we can go 
outside the general market for our fertilizing elements, we 
can sometimes pick them up at a very low figure, The 
present season (1885) I have purchased fish-waste in the 
form of liver, halibut, and herring chum at a very low fig- 
ure at Gloucester, Mass. I have purchased the liver chum 
at $4 per ton, which would make the nitrogen in it come 
to about 4^ cents per pound, and the phosphoric acid at 
about 11 cents. Halibut chum is now worth $8 per ton, 
which would bring the nitrogen in that form about 8 cents 
per pound, and the phosphoric acid 2i cents per pound. 
Fish-skins, by which I mean the skins, bones, and fins 
stripped from fish, which are sold under the name of " bone- 
less fish," are sold this season in Gloucester at the low figure 
of $4 per ton. I have not an analysis at hand ; but they are 
very rich in both ammonia and phosphoric acid, having 
about 4.50 of the former, and 6 of the latter. They are 
very salt, being stripped from salted fish. In this form the 
ammonia cannot cost over 6 cents, or the phosphoric acid 
over 2 cents, per pound. " Chum," or pomace, from waste 
mackerel or herring, is sold the present season as low as 
$6.50 per ton. There is usually a large per cent of salt 
in its composition. The ammonia at these rates cannot 
be over 6 cents, and the phosphoric acid over 2| cents, per 
pound. 

I would have my farmer friends understand that the 
above rates are lower than usual, — about, on an average, 
from a third to a half the usual price ; still, at the usual 
prices of material, fish-waste is the cheapest source for 
nitrogen. 

Says Professor Goessmann, " Manufacturers put it in a 
better mechanical condition, and sell it at about $ 34 per 



FERTILIZERS. 89 

ton, or an advance of from two hundred to four hundred 
per cent." In these forms, about all the ammonia may be 
assumed to be available the same season they are used, 
and from one-half to two-thirds of the phosphoric acid. 
As these fish-wastes are usually heavily charged with salt 
(used when fresh, to keep them), it is the best plan to use 
them on salt-loving crops, as cabbage, onions, and mangel- 
wurzels. They can either be spread on the surface in the 
fall, harrowed in, or slightly ploughed under, or be com- 
posted in the spring with barn manure into which enters 
a good proportion of horse manure. Be sure to cover the 
heap, especially the top, with dry earth and plaster. These 
wastes are usually bought up by manufacturers of fertil- 
izers ; and the surplus to be found in the market, acces- 
sible to farmers, is never very large. I have used them 
for many years somewhat extensively, having fifty tons of 
them at the present time, mostly composted with barn 
manure and rock-weed. 

As my treatise is for the benefit of my fellow-farmers, 
I will give the addresses of parties who deal in these and 
other fertilizing materials at first hand ; though it may not 
be the wisest thing for me to do, viewed from a pecuniary 
stand-point, as it will tend to send me to a dearer market. 

Dealer in liver, herring, and mackerel chum, Charles 
Tarr ; dealer in fish-skins, Fred L. Stacey ; dealers in 
halibut chum, A. W. Dodd & Co., — all of Gloucester, 
Mass. 

Dealers in unleached Canada ashes, Messrs. Munroe, 
Judson, & Stroup, Oswego, N.Y. 

Dealers in ammonite, M. L. Shoemaker (he has two 
grades), Philadelphia, Penn. 

Dealers in tankage, John Taylor & Co., Trenton, N.J. ; 
Armour & Co., Chicago (in ten-ton loads). 

The list might be indefinitely extended, but I give the 



90 FERTILIZERS. 

addresses of those who deal in fertilizing material not 
often found by farmers in the market. The reports from 
the various agricultural experimental stations contain the 
addresses of almost numberless manufacturers and dealers 
in superphosphates, potash, and ammonia. 

FORMULAS, AND HOW TO COMPOUND THEM. 

From what I have written, my farmer friends will see 
that I do not present the formulas I have used as the best 
guide for them to follow. Their soil, in *its natural or arti- 
ficial condition, may differ from my own ; and so these 
formulas would require modification accordingly. In my 
own practice, perhaps, all these may be improved ; while I 
know the one for beans and pease can be : and I expect 
to find, from some indications, I can dispense with more 
or less of the potash on most of my land. 

It will be noticed that they are all what are known as 
" complete " manures ; that is, each has all three of the 
essential elements of plant-food. It is quite possible, that, 
on land that has been manured for a series of years, espe- 
cially if by stable manure, the potash probably, and the 
phosphoric acid possibly, may be in excess of the needs 
of crops, and therefore can for a while be omitted from 
formulas ; but in such case we need to be on the watch 
to detect when the limit is reached, and govern ourselves 
accordingly, bearing in mind that the quantity of crop is 
always measured by the element of which the soil lias the 
smallest quantity, and that a large quantity of one ele- 
ment will not help the crop over a deficiency in either of 
the others. This is the reason why, when, for instance, 
fish is used liberally, a manure especially rich in nitrogen, 
for a while there are enormous crops ; but they soon grow 
less, even under a heavier application. . The trouble is, 
the potash of the land has been exhausted. That this is the 



FERTILIZERS. 91 

trouble can be proved by using manures rich in potash, 
when fertility will return. My farms, four of them, are 
made up of land ranging from sandy loam to strong loam 
and reclaimed meadow. They have been under cultiva- 
tion from one to ten years. During the first five years 
they were dressed with various manures, and more or less 
with commercial fertilizers ; during the last five years I 
have depended more and more on commercial fertilizers, 
using, of the three ingredients which compose these, from 
thirty-five to forty-five tons annually. Much of this I 
have used in connection with barnyard manure, using the 
latter broadcast, and the fertilizer in the drills. I say 
drills, for I have not planted corn, beans, or potatoes in 
hills for the past dozen years ; neither do I believe that 
any of my farmer friends, after once giving the drill 
system a fair trial, will ever go back to the old way. 

FORMULAS FOR VARIOUS CROPS. 

The following table of formulas for various crops are 
such as are used by fertilizer dealers of good repute. I 
present them as good starting-points, to be followed or 
varied as the characteristics of each field, as developed by 
the soil-tests, may indicate. The figures in the first three 
columns indicate the per cent of ammonia, etc., needed. 
In the next they indicate how many pounds of the mixture 
to apply. 



92 



FERTILIZERS. 



Potatoes 

Corn 

Cabbage and cauliflower . . 

Squash 

Tomatoes 

Fruit and fruit-bearing vines 

Oats 

Rye 

Strawberries 

Raspberries 

Asparagus 

Wheat 

Barley 

Grass 

Melon 

Tobacco 

Onion 

Cucumber 

Turnips 

Carrot 

Beet 

Celery 

Lettuce 

Pease and beans 

Cotton 

Hops 

Sugar-cane 







Phos- 


Ammonia, 


Potash, 


phoric 


per cent. 


per cent. 


Acid, 
per cent. 


6 


8 


5 


2£ 


6 


7 


6 


7 


5 


6 


7 


5 


6 


7 


5 


21 


11 


8 


5 


9 


5 


5 


9 


5 


3* 


8 


6 


8* 


8 


6 


5 


9 


6 


6 


3 


ih 


6 


3 


71 


6 


7 


5 


6 


7 


5 


6* 


8 


4 


5 


9 


5 


5| 


7 


5 


5 


8 


7 


7 


9 


5 


7 


9 


5 


7 


9 


5 


7 


9 


5 


2 


7i 


8 


2i 


4 


74 


3i 


13 


5 


2£ 


7* 


8 



Lbs. 



500 
600 
750 

1,000 
750 
600 
400 
400 
600 
600 
500 
200 
200 
400 

1,000 

1,000 
800 

1,200 
400 
650 
400 

1,000 

1,000 
500 
300 

1,000 
800 



to 1,000 
" 1,000 
" 1,500 
" 1,500 
" 1,000 



" 600 
" 600 
" S00 
" 800 
" 700 
" 600 
" 600 
" 700 
" 1,600 
" 2,000 
" 2,000 
" 1,600 
" 600 
" 900 
" 800 
" 1,400 
" 1,400 
" 800 



In these formulas, all the phosphoric acid is to be avail- 
able ; that is, either soluble or reverted, and mostly of the 
former. It will be noticed that all these formulas are 
complete fertilizers ; that is, contain all of the three essen- 
tial elements of plant-food. Let me again enjoin on my 
fellow-farmers, when using a portion of them in the drill, 



FERTILIZERS. 93 

in order to prevent destroying the seed, to mix thoroughly 
with the soil before planting ; using the top of a cedar-tree 
to which a stone has been tied, dragging it along through 
the furrow, or a brush barn-broom, or even a hoe if care- 
fully dragged. With extra care in mixing for crops such 
as corn, the whole of the fertilizer might be used in the 
furrows or hill ; but no good farmer would, as a rule, raise 
his crop in that way. With potatoes, fertilizers are some- 
times successfully applied b}^ first covering the potato* Avith 
an inch of earth, and then sowing it, finishing by covering 
the seed to the usual depth. A portion can be applied to 
the corn-crop after it is up ; but in such cases it must be 
cultivated under, or the plant will get but little benefit 
from it. 

In using these formulas, if you live near a good market, 
your vegetable crop will bring more than it otherwise 
would ; while your land, and probably your labor-bill, will 
be higher than it would be back in the country, and the 
cost of the fertilizer will be as cheap or cheaper. Such 
being the case, it would be wise to use the larger quantity 
named, and to experiment a little to ascertain whether or 
not, under your exceptional circumstances, it might not 
pay you even to increase this. Fertilizers, as has been 
said, do not respond so well on soil that has been heavily 
enriched with barn and other manures for a series of years. 
On very rich truck-farms, some fertilizers, even when lib- 
erally applied, have but little effect. In such cases the 
ground is already heavily stocked with the surplus left 
over by many manurings, and will sometimes yield full 
crops without help from any manure whatever ; but usually 
nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, guano, or bone will 
give good paying returns, even on such soil. I have 
made use of the above formulas, with excellent results, on 
crops of potatoes, corn, pease, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, 



94 FERTILIZERS. 

melon, squash, onions, oats, grass, beet, and Hungarian 

millet. 

HOW TO COMPOUND OUR OWN FORMULAS. 

To start with, we will aim to get our three elements 
from more than one source, believing that the greater the 
variety from which they are obtained, the better it will be 
for the varied and varying wants of the crop. In making 
up my formulas, I start with some one fertilizer, and then 
add to it, from various sources, what I need to complete 
it. To illustrate, let us take the first on the list, that for 
potatoes. 

The potato formula calls for : ammonia, 6 per cent ; pot- 
ash, 8 per cent ; phosphoric acid, 8 per cent ; quantity re- 
quired, 1,000 pounds. That is, of this 1,000 pounds, 6 per 
cent, which is 1,000 X .06, must be ammonia, = 60 pounds; 
8 per cent potash, that is, 1,000 X -08, = 80 pounds ; 
and 8 per cent phosphoric acid, = 1,000 X .08, = 80 
pounds. The formula would stand thus : — 

Ammonia. Potash. Phosphoric acid. 

Wanted : 60 pounds. 80 pounds. 80 pounds. 

Let us start with a superphosphate, which we will 
assume to analyze as follows : Ammonia, '3.50 ; available 
phosphoric acid, 11. From this we will supply the phos- 
phoric acid needed in the formula, which, as there are 11 
pounds in every hundred, will require as many hundred 
pounds as 11 is contained in 80, which will be 7 hundred, 
and -j 8 T , which would be just about 27 pounds more, making 
727 pounds in all. Now, in taking these 727 pounds of 
the phosphate, as each hundred has, besides the phosphoric 
acid, 3|- pounds of ammonia, we have at the same time 3J 
per cent of 727 pounds of this element, = 25 pounds : we 
have thus obtained all the phosphoric acid needed in our 
formula, and (60 — 25 = 35) all but 35 pounds of the 



FERTILIZERS. 95 

ammonia. As the ammonia in the phosphate was doubt- 
less from bone, let us get the remainder from sulphate of 
ammonia, which is a form in which it will act more 
promptly, and start the crop, while that from bone will 
feed it later in the season. Now, sulphate of ammonia 
contains 25 per cent pure ammonia : therefore we get our 
remainder of ammonia in about || of a hundred pounds, 
= 140 pounds of sulphate of ammonia. Passing next to 
the potash needed, viz., 80 pounds, let us get part of it 
in muriate of potash, and part from wood ashes, where the 
potash is the carbonate of potash. 80 per cent of muriate 
of potash contains just above 50 per cent (50.46) of pure 
potash. Taking a hundred pounds of this, and we have 
remaining, to be got from unleached ashes, 88 — 50, = 38 
pounds. Now, a hundred pounds of unleached wood 
ashes, containing about 7 per cent of carbonate of potash, 
would contain about | as much of pure potash. § of 7 — 
4^ pounds ; 38 -f- 4|- = 9 J hundred pounds nearly. As 
unleached wood ashes weigh about 45 pounds to the 
bushel, in 9J hundred pounds there would be about 21 
bushels. Now, using these ashes, we have also brought 
with them some phosphoric acid, for wood ashes unleached 
has about two per cent of it ; therefore in our 21 bushels 
we should have 21 X 2 = 42 pounds. Let us take 
away sufficient of the bone to allow for the 42 pounds. 
As the bone has 11 per cent, we will drop as many hun- 
dred pounds as 11 is contained in 42, = 4 nearly. But, in 
dropping these 450 pounds of bone, we, of course, drop 
also the ammonia contained in it, which would be 4J X 3 J, 
= 16 pounds nearly. To get this 16 pounds of am- 
monia, we will take some dried blood, which analyzes 13 
per cent ammonia. It would require ^| of 100 pounds of 
this, = 133 pounds nearly. Now, bringing all the sources 
together, and we have 



96 



Acid phosphate 
Sulphate of ammonia 
Unleached wood ashes 
Dried blood . 



FERTILIZERS. 




Lbs. 


• • • • 


727 


- 450 = 277 


• • • • 


. 


. 88 


i • • • • 


. 


. 950 


• • • • 


• 


. 133 



1,448 



We have for our formula, which called for 1,000 pounds 
of a fertilizer containing ammonia, 6 per cent, potash, 8 
per cent, and phosphoric acid, 8 per cent, a compound 
containing 1,448 pounds. I know that the question will at 
once occur to my farmer friends, How can this be correct, 
as only 1,000 pounds were called for ? True, but that was 
to be of a given strength, while the elements in this will 
not average as rich as the elements in that, and therefore 
more bulk is required. If, instead of taking the ashes, we 
had taken our entire supply of potash from the muriate, 
then the result would have been a compound weighing 
less than 1,000 pounds, for the reason that the average of 
the materials would have been richer. This illustration, 
which I have purposely made to cover about all possible 
variations, covers the whole matter of compounding our 
own formulas. What we now need to ascertain is, where 
we can get our own raw materials the cheapest. The 
various facts presented in other portions of this treatise, 
especially under the heads of " Potash," " Nitrogen," and 
" Phosphoric Acid," with the tables to be found on pp. 
Ill and 112, will inform us from what source to obtain 
the cheapest materials needed to compound these or any 
other formulas. 

SOME FORMULAS AS COMPOUNDED. 

I herewith present the way I have compounded several 
formulas for my own use, not as the wisest course in the 
selection of material, but as suggestive in the variety of 



FERTILIZEKS. 97 

substances from which the three elements are obtained. 
The per cent of ammonia, potash, and phosphoric acid is 
the same for each variety of vegetable as those given in the 
table on p. 92. The quantity applied has, in each case, 
the larger amount. The " Ames bone " is an honest super- 
phosphate made by a reliable neighbor, A. L. Ames of 
Peabody, Mass. I will here say, that, while on old land, I 
have had excellent results from the potato fertilizer four 
years in succession, raising crops that averaged, with differ- 
ent years, from 200 to 317 bushels per acre in fields con- 
taining eight acres. On pasture land broken up for the 
first time, the results have not been so satisfactory. 



FORMULAS OF FERTILIZERS. 

Pease for One Acre. 

{Half harrowed in, Half in Drill.) 

600 lbs. Ames bone. | 250 lbs. muriate of potash. 

40 lbs. dried blood. 

Potatoes for One Acre. 
500 lbs. Ames bone, in drill. 75 lbs. cotton-seed meal, or 50 lbs. 

50 " sulphate ammonia, in drill. I guano, in drill. 

200 lbs. muriate of potash, in drill. 

Vegetable Vines for One Acre. 

(Three-fourths harrowed in, One-fourth in Drill.) 



600 lbs. Ames bone. 

100 " sulphate ammonia. 



100 lbs. dried blood. 
200 " cotton-seed meal. 



200 lbs. muriate of potash. 

Carrots or Beets for One Acre. 
(Harrowed in. ) 



400 lbs. Ames bone. 

100 " sulphate ammonia. 



100 lbs. dried blood. 

200 " cotton-seed meal. 



160 lbs. muriate of potash. 



98 FERTILIZERS. 

Beans foe One Acre. 

{Half harrowed in, Half in Brill.) 

550 lbs. Ames bone. | 33 lbs. sulphate ammonia. 

110 lbs. muriate of potash. 

Hungarian for One Acre. 

{Harrowed in.) 

400 lbs. Ames bone. | 150 lbs. muriate of potash. 

50 lbs. sulphate of ammonia. 

Corn for One Acre. 
{Half harrowed in, Half in Drill). 



600 lbs. Ames bone. 

200 " cotton-seed meal. 



160 lbs. sulphate of ammonia. 
180 " muriate of potash. 



Grass for One Acre. 
{Harrowed in. ) 



400 lbs. Ames bone. 
100 " dried blood. 



150 lbs. muriate of potash. 
100 " sulphate of ammonia. 



Onions for One Acre. 

{Baked in before Ploughing. 



700 lbs. Ames bone. 
100 " dried blood. 
400 " cotton-seed meal. 



200 lbs. muriate of potash. 
*250 " sulphate ammonia, or 300 
guano. 



Oats for One Acre. 

{Harrowed in.) 



300 lbs. Ames bone. 
150 " dried blood. 
25 " sulphate of ammonia. 



35 bushels unleached hard-wood 
ashes. 



CONDENSATION OF SPECIAL AND OTHER FORMULAS. 

Professor George H. Cook, of the New Jersey experi- 
mental station, gives five formulas, which contain the 
three elements in about the same proportion as they were 
found by analysis to exist in seventy-two different brands 
of fertilizers, of which thirty-six were sold specially for 
various crops, such as potatoes, corn, buckwheat, etc. In 

* To elide in when they begin to bottom. 



FERTILIZERS. 99 

calculating the proportions of crude materials to use in 
making up a ton of fertilizer by either of these formulas, it 
was assumed that — 

Sulphate of soda contains 20 per cent of nitrogen. 

Nitrate of soda contains 16 " " " " 

Blood and ammonite contain 12 " " " " 
Bone-black superphosphate 

contains 16 " " " available phosphoric acid. 
Acid phosphate from South 

Carolina rock contains 12 " " " " " " 

Muriate of potash contains 50 " " " potash. 

Kainite contains 12 " " " " 

No difficulty will be experienced, says the professor, in 
securing supplies of these guaranteed to contain the above 
percentages of plant-food. 

Class No. 1. — This is a small class, containing three 
brands, and includes all of the fertilizers in which the guar- 
anteed nitrogen does not exceed one per cent. 

Class No. 2. — This is a large class, containing twenty- 
four different fertilizers, of which sixteen are intended for 
general use, and eight are specially designed for fruit, 
tobacco, potatoes, lawn-dressing, hops, and buckwheat. 

Class No. 3. — This class includes eighteen different 
fertilizers, of which eleven are for general use, and seven 
are specially designed for sorghum, potatoes, etc. 

Class No. 4. — This class includes twenty-one different 
fertilizers, of which five are for general use, and sixteen 
are specially designed for grain, tobacco, potatoes, and 
vegetables in general. 

Class No. 5. — This contains six fertilizers, of which 
five are for special crops, — tobacco, lawn-dressing, grain, 
and vegetables. 

The value of the plant-food in an unmixed condition, 
given in each formula, was calculated by using the manu- 
facturers' average retail prices for 1884. 



100 FERTILIZERS. 

Class No. 1. 

To make One Ton when mixed together. Containing Lbs. of 

Blood 110 lbs. Nitrogen. 13.2, or 0.66% of ton. 

South Carolina rock (treated 

with acid) 1,600 " Phos. acid, 192.0, "9.60% " 

Kainite 250 " Potash . 30.0, "1.50% " 

Total 1,960 lbs. 

Cost of materials unmixed $19.36. 

Class No. 2. 

To make One Ton when mixed together. Containing Lbs. of 

Nitrate of soda 10 ° lb M Nitrogen . 32.80, or 1.64% of ton. 

Ammonite 140 " > b 

South Carolina rock (treated 

with acid) 1,400 " Phos. acid, 168.00, " 8.40% " 

Muriate of potash . ... 50" t Po^ . 61.00, "3.05% " 
Kainite 300 " J 

Total 1,990 lbs. 

Cost of materials unmixed $21.49. 

Class No. 3. 

To make One Ton when mixed together. Containing Lbs. of 

Sulphate of ammonia . . 50 lbs. ) 

Nitrate of soda 100 " > Nitrogen . 47.0, or 2.35% of ton. 

High-grade blood .... 175 " ) 
South Carolina rock (treated 

with acid) 1,450" Phos. acid, 174.0, " 8.70% " 

Muriate of potash. . . . 125" } Potash 74.5, "3.78% " 

Kainite 100 " S 

Total 2,000 lbs. 

Cost of materials unmixed $25.31. 

Class No. 4. 

To make One Ton when mixed together. Containing Lbs. of 

Sulphate of ammonia . . . 100 lbs. \ 

Nitrate of soda 100" > Nitrogen . 72.00, or 3.60% of ton. 

High-grade blood .... 300 " ) 

Bone-black superphosphate . 940 " Phos. acid, 150.00, "7.50% " 

Muriate of potash . . . . 100" I Potasll . no.00, " 5.50 % " 

Kainite 500 " S 

Total 2,040 lbs. 

Cost of materials unmixed $27.46. 



FERTILIZERS. 101 

Class No. 5. 

To make One Ton when mixed together. Containing Lbs. of 

Sulphate of ammonia . . . 150 lbs. ^ 

Nitrate of soda 200 " > Nitrogen, 104.00, or 5.20% of ton. 

High-grade blood .... 350 " ' 

Bone-black superphosphate . 875 " Phos. acid, 140.00, "7.00% " 

Muriate of potash .... 75 " I Potash 80.00, "4.00% " 

Kainite 350 " ) ' 

Total 2,000 lbs. 

Cost of materials unmixed $31.06. 

HOW TO MIX THE INGREDIENTS THAT ENTER INTO A 

FORMULA. 

Now let us try our hand at mixing together the ingredi- 
ents that enter into a formula. As a base from which to 
start, T have taken a local superphosphate made honestly 
by Mr. A. L. Ames of Peabody, Mass., and have added to 
this, plant-food from various sources. In mixing the vari- 
ous ingredients together, you will need a sieve as fine again 
as a common coal-sieve. Having cleared a place upon the 
barn floor, and having decided upon quantities of each 
element needed, first weigh these out, and have them near 
at hand ; next, sift each lot that needs sifting, by itself 
separately, breaking up with your feet or the back of the 
shovel all lumps that will not pass through the sieve. 
Now begin with the element you need most of, and sift a 
portion of it evenly over a circle of sufficient width so that 
the first layer will not be over an inch in depth. Follow 
with the next, using about the same proportions as of the 
first, and thus on until you have a proportion of each. Go 
back again and repeat the process, until the quantities 
weighed out are used up. If the entire mass is but six or 
eight inches in depth, it will mix the easier. To mix, an 
iron-toothed rake may be used ; cutting it down, and mixing 
it, and ending by throwing it together with a shovel. If 
well mixed, the entire mass will be of a uniform color. In 



102 FERTILIZERS. 

many fertilizers, as I have stated before, all forms of pot- 
ash, except the carbonate which is found in wood ashes, 
and one form of crude potash, can be safely mixed- with 
any fertilizer without loss of ammonia. My farmer friends 
will remember that I have before this recommended that 
potash in any form would be likely to do most good if 
spread on in the late autumn or early in the spring. When 
wood ashes are used as a source of potash in formulas, I 
would spread it separately, harrowing it in, and raking in 
the remainder of the formulas. 

APPLYING FERTILIZERS. 

A man needs a little experience to get them evenly dis- 
tributed. It is well to practise a bit at first. Suppose, for 
instance, we want to scatter six hundred pounds over an 
acre of land : that would be one pound to every seventy- 
two square feet, or a piece of land about eight and a half 
by eight and a half feet. If we desire to strew, say, three 
hundred pounds in the drill, the drills being three feet apart, 
there would be about fourteen thousand feet of drill to the 
acre, which would give one pound to about forty-five feet 
of row. One trouble to be met with in distributing fer- 
tilizers is the wind, which during the planting-season is 
apt to begin to blow as soon as the air gets warm in the 
morning, generally slacking up toward night. It is best, 
therefore, when possible, to put several hands on to spread 
them, either early in the morning, or toward the close of 
day. Otherwise, it would be well to have a few buckets 
of water handy, and pour into the barrels enough at a 
time to gently moisten by stirring the contents of each, 
being careful to have them dry enough to distribute freely. 
To mix them in the drill so that they will not burn the 
seed, I use often the thick top of a cedar-tree to which a 
stone has been securely fastened. This, dragged once 



FERTILIZERS. 103 

through the bottom of the furrow, will mix Peruvian 
guano, or any fertilizer, so thoroughly that it will not 
injure the seed. It has been found in practice, and is now 
generally advocated by dealers in fertilizers, that, as a gen- 
eral rule, it is a better plan to use barn manure and fertil- 
izers together on the same crop, as far as circumstances will 
permit ; using the barn manure broadcast, and the fertilizers 
in the drill or hill, to give the crop a start. In my own 
practice I have not paid much respect to the rule, and 
thus far am very well satisfied with the results. I believe 
that farmers, as a general rule, would do better for many 
crops to use their manure on their grass, and so get a good 
sward, and depend on this, turned under, for the bulky 
vegetable matter when using fertilizers ; for most of the 
difference between fertilizers and barn manure is the 
presence of a bulky mass of vegetable matter in the latter, 
which not only acts mechanically to lighten heavy soils, 
but frees the plant-food locked up in all soils ; and this 
the sward would supply. 

THE SYSTEM OF MANURING WITH UNLEACHED WOOD 

ASHES. 

The firm that probably sells the most unleached ashes 
in New England and the Middle States, Messrs. Munroe, 
Judson, & Stroup, Oswego, N.Y., gives the following direc- 
tions for its use. As I know that excellent crops have 
been raised by following a portion of their instructions, I 
will give them in full under their proper heads; though 
we must remember, that, although ashes contain all the 
mineral elements in plant-food, it is wholly lacking in 
nitrogen, and there must come a time when, the accumu- 
lation in the soil having been used up, most crops will need 
to have nitrogen fed to them in the manure. They advise 
for all crops, to apply heavily the first year the full dollar 



104 FERTILIZERS. 

value you would use of stable manure, and in after-years 
give a light dressing. The effect of ashes lasts two or 
three times as long as stable manure. They are especially 
valuable for fruit-trees, fruit, grass, onions, cabbage, melons, 
cucumbers, and potatoes. A thorough application calls for 
from 45 to 200 bushels per acre. 

For Strawberries. — Apply, in early fall or before, 
40 to 125 bushels per acre, spading in a little bone before 
they start in the spring. 

For Potatoes. — Scatter from 21 to 57 bushels a foot 
wide over the drills after they are covered. 

For Corn. — Harrow in 40 to 80 bushels per acre be- 
fore planting ; and, after covering the seed, spread 15 to 
28 bushels on the top of the hills, covering a strip a foot 
wide. 

For Lawns, Meadows, or Pastures. — In fall or 
early spring, or soon after haying, spread from 25 to 125 
bushels. If 125 are used, no more will be needed for sev- 
eral years. 

In Laying down to Grass. — Broadcast 45 to 225 
bushels, in summer or fall, to give it time to leach down. 
Next year plant with potatoes, top-dressing with from 12 
to 18 bushels per acre. Next year sow to wheat or rye, 
and lay down to grass. No more fertilizer needed for 
eight or ten years. 

For Wheat, Rye, and Oats. — Broadcast from 85 to 
170 bushels in November, and plough slightly under. In 
spring plough deeper, throwing it up to the surface, and 
harrowing it ; or, for the immediate crop, 20 bushels may 
be harrowed in, in the spring: but in the long run the 
larger use will be the more profitable. 

For Onions. — Broadcast from 45 to 250 bushels in the 
fall, and plough them just under. In the spring plough 
them back to the surface, and harrow. If 250 bushels are 



FERTILIZERS. 105 

used, 40 will do for the second year, 60 for the third, and 
85 for the fourth. 

For Cabbage and Cauliflower. — Use from 125 to 
200 bushels in early spring, harrowing it into the ploughed 
land. After the plants are four inches high, put half a 
pint around each hill before hoeing. By such an applica 
tion, cabbage can be raised several years in succession on 
the same soil. Apply 40 bushels, broadcast, the second 
year, (30 the third, and 85 the fourth ; using also some each 
year in the hill. 

For Cucumbers and Melons. — Harrow in 88 bush- 
els, and scatter a pint over the top of each hill. 

fertilizers excellent for various crops, and sug- 
gestions. 

For Strawberries, Raspberries, Peaches, and 
Pears, and the Fruit Garden and Orchard Gen- 
erally. — There has been found nothing more satisfactory 
than the phosphoric acid and potash, with but a small 
quantity of nitrogen. Bone that has been treated with acid 
will act at once, but coarse steamed bone is more enduring. 
I have a pear-orchard in land that has naturally a good sup- 
ply of potash, that, being in a sickly condition, I treated 
to coarse steamed bone eight years ago, with the result 
of producing a good growth of wood, and noble crops of 
fruit, while I could cut two good crops under it annually 
ever since. (See Mr. Hunt's remarks, on p. 67, on the 
advantage of the bone and potash application to such 
fruits.) It appears to be settled that the " yellows" on the 
peach-trees is caused by want of nourishment, there being 
especially a lacking of potash. Diseased trees have been 
cured by a liberal application of it. 

Professor Penhallow advises, after stirring the soil, to 
apply per acre the following mixture, viz., sulphate of mag- 



106 FERTILIZERS. 

nesia (hieresite), 25 pounds ; muriate of potash, 100 to 
150 pounds; dissolved bone-black, 450 pounds: omitting a 
space of a foot all about the tree. Instead of the muri- 
ate, probably 10 bushels of unleached wood ashes, with a 
peck of waste salt, might be used. Dr. Nichols recom- 
mends the following as a good stock fertilizer, a good com- 
bination for all crops, five hundred pounds to be applied 
to the acre. While he considers superphosphates as good 
for all crops, he considers them especially good for roots 
and cereals. 

Lbs. 

Superphosphate of lime 40 

Sulphate of ammonia ....... 25 

Muriate of potash . . . . ' . . . .25 

Sulphate of lime (plaster) ...... 7 

Sulphate of magnesia 3 

For Asparagus. — J. B. Moore, the well-known market 
gardener, has an acre and a half of asparagus on soil nat- 
urally very poor, mere pitch-pine land, which has, since 
broken up from nature, received no other dressing than 
phosphate of lime and potash. It is remarkably thrifty. 

For Pasture-Land. — Raw ground bone will restore 
to the soil the phosphate of lime that has been carried away 
in the milk and in the bones of the young calf. Use finely 
ground bone (not treated with acid) at the rate of four hun- 
dred to five hundred pounds per acre, and the effects will 
be seen for years. It is better to double the productive- 
ness of a pasture than to double the area of it. 

For Fruit-Trees in Pasture-Land. — To Professor 
Maynard, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, I be- 
lieve the public will, as years go on, realize that they owe 
a great debt. The professor was the first, as far as I am 
aware, to agitate, and carry out in practice on some- 
thing of a large scale, the idea of using for orcharding, 



FERTILIZERS. 107 

waste land, rocky pastures, and hillsides which neither 
the plough nor manure cart could reach. This was made 
practicable by the use of commercial fertilizers. The 
professors plan is, in brief, to dig holes three or four feet 
across, throwing out the earth to the requisite depth, and 
then, with picks, loosening the soil eighteen inches deeper 
if practicable. Make a mixture of half bone, half potash, 
and, when planting, scatter about four good handfuls over 
the soil thrown out before planting, and as much more in 
the holes when they are half filled up with earth. Mulch 
with waste hay or tan. Apply the same amount of manur- 
ing yearly for a few years, until the trees are well estab- 
lished and in a thrifty condition. I have planted a hundred 
or more trees in this way on my waste hilly pasture-land, 
and am thus far pleased with their promise. 

In Laying Land down to Grass. — Finely ground 
bone harrowed in at the time of laying down, at the rate 
of from five hundred to a thousand pounds to the acre, 
will be found to be an excellent manure, and a lasting one. 
If the bone is steamed, it can be used in a coarser state. If 
the grass is light upland (such land is better for corn than 
grass), then have half of the bone in the form of acid 
phosphate. When wood ashes are accessible, test your 
upland, and manure a portion with a mixture of the two, 
using value for value of each, and be governed in the 
future by the results. In bone and ashes we have a com- 
plete manure, all of the three elements being present. 

For Corn. — In the valuable experiments inaugurated 
by the Connecticut experimental station, in the experi- 
ments with barn manures and various fertilizers on corn, it 
was found that the mixture of three hundred pounds of 
superphosphate with one hundred and fifty pounds of 
muriate of potash gave the greatest profit, though not the 
largest crop ; the average yield in fifty-three experiments 



108 FERTILIZERS. 

being a little over fifty bushels of shelled corn to the acre, 
while the cost of the fertilizers was not over eight dollars. 
A mixture of either fish or Lobos guano and muriate of pot- 
ash has proved an excellent manure for large crops of corn. 
Tiy it at the rate of five hundred pounds of either variety 
of guano and one hundred and fifty pounds of the potash. 

For Potatoes. — The summing-up of many experiments 
made over a large area of country was, that the best 
manure for potatoes is five hundred and fifty pounds of 
Peruvian or fish guano, with one hundred and fifty 
pound of muriate of potash. 

For Cotton. — For cotton in sandy uplands, the fol- 
lowing mixture is said by Professor Dabney to have given 
excellent results : " 20 bushels dry earth, 250 pounds kai- 
nite, 400 pounds pure dissolved animal bone (or 600 pounds 
acid phosphate), and 100 pounds sulphate of ammonia, well 
mixed ; 500 to 1,000 pounds to the acre." 

For Wheat. — In using guano on wheat, it is recom- 
mended to use one-third in the drills at time of sowing ; 
one-third early in the spring, to be lightly harrowed in ; 
and one-third just before a rain, when the plants are eight 
or ten inches out of the soil. 

For Grass or Grain Crop. — Where finely ground 
bone only is used (we will remember there is no potash in 
this), an application is recommended by good authority, to 
vary with the condition of the soil, of from 600 to 1,200 
pounds to the acre. The effect of this will be seen for 
several years. 

COMPOSTS. 

Our farmer friends in the South do more in making a 
class of composts which in their composition and con- 
centration approach commercial fertilizers, than do we of 
the North. And this is not to be wondered at, when on 
almost every farm they have cotton-seed, so rich in am- 



FERTILIZERS. 109 

moiria and phosphoric acid, while in a thickly wooded 
region there must be plenty of ashes to supply potash, 
and almost in their midst lie the great phosphate beds of 
North and South Carolina and Georgia. We of the North, 
with our coarser materials, such as night-soil, fish-waste, 
sea manure, and the like, make composts, but not nearly 
so rich, or approaching so near in character to the commer- 
cial fertilizers in the market. Professor Dabney submits 
four valuable compost formulas, which I here present : 

F.ormula No. 1. 

Lbs. 
Stable manure ........ 800 

Cotton-seed ......... 750 

Dissolved bone ........ 450 



2,000 

He advises in substance as follows : Have barn manure 
two inches deep, next the bone two inches, and then 
cotton-seed four inches. Wet the mass well with urine if 
possible, otherwise with water. Continue to repeat in 
same order until all the material is used. Cover the heap 
with dry earth or plaster. In from three to seven weeks 
the fermentation will have killed the cotton-seed. When 
using, pitch over, and mix thoroughly. 

For Cottox. — For cotton, use 300 pounds per acre, 
half in the furrow, and half with the seed. On poor soil, 
use 400 to 500 pounds, — 150 pounds with the seed. 

For Corn. — Use one pint to the hill. If the land is 
in pretty good condition, use less. On sandy pine lands 
or old fields, add 75 pounds per acre of muriate of potash. 
When ashes are plenty, substitute these, — about 10 
bushels unleached hard-wood. 

For Winter Wheat. — Use 400 to 500 pounds per acre, 
adding 50 pounds sulphate of potash dissolved in water. 
If the season is backward, add in the spring 100 pounds 
nitrate of soda. 



110 



FERTILIZERS. 




Formula No. 2. 


Lbs. 


Dry muck, peat, or soil 


. 600 


Cotton-seed (twenty-two bushels) . 


. 600 


Acid phosphate 


. 600 


Muriate of potash ...... 


. 100 


Sulphate of ammonia ..... 


. 100 



2,000 
Compost in same manner as No. 1 ; the muriate of potash 
and sulphate of ammonia being dissolved in water, and 
used to wet the heap. 

For Wheat, Rye, or Oats. — Three hundred pounds 
to the acre. It may be harrowed in with the grain. 



Formula No. 3. 


Lbs. 


Stable manure . . . . 


. 500 


Un burnt marl 


. 500 


Salt 


. 200 


Dissolved bones . . . 


. 500 


Sulphate of potash ..... 


. 150 


" " ammonia ..... 


. 150 



Mix in layers, or first mixing the marl and salt together 
thoroughly, and cover with it the compost of cotton-seed, 
stable manure, and dissolved bone ; then sprinkle with the 
solution of sulphate of ammonia, and turn the whole over 
once in two weeks till fermented. Use as directed for Nos. 
1 and 2. 



Formula No. 4, for Tobacco. 

Stable manure . 
Sulphate of potash 

" " ammonia . 

" " magnesia 
Dissolved bone . 
Land plaster 



Lbs. 

1,000 
300 
100 
100 
400 
100 

2,000 



Use 400 to 500 pounds to the acre. In place of the pot- 
ash, 80 bushels of hard-wood ashes may be substituted. 
Says the professor, " The formula for tobacco (No. 4) is 
intended for those sections where cotton is not raised, and 
has met with marked success." 



FERTILIZERS. 



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Half dry fish 
Fish by Good 
Castor-pomac 
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Hoof and hoi- 
Hair manures 
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FERTILIZERS. 113 

The table is very interesting and instructive, and will 
bear a good deal of studying. Notice how many sub- 
stances, in their percentages of nitrogen, potash, and phos- 
phoric acid, approach in value stable manure. Notice that 
the humus-making capacity (the organic matter) of dry 
muck is three times as great as in stable manure. To 
make the potash and lime in oyster-shells and mollusks 
available for plant-food, they must be burnt. In marine 
mud it is probably the nitrogen and alumina only that are 
available ; the mineral matter, mostly fragments of shells, 
being insoluble. As a rule, the per cent of organic matter 
in the several substances is a measure of their humus-mak- 
ing capacity. Note that all the substances that are the 
product of combustion contain no nitrogen : combustion 
destroys nitrogen. 

Corn-cobs, as will be seen, are amazingly rich in potash ; 
but the quantity of ashes from them is amazingly small. 
The potash in the ashes from a bushel of cobs is worth a 
little scant of one-third of a cent. Note that decayed vege- 
table matter, in its various forms, is much the same in the 
proportions of the three elements. 

Let us bear in mind that the nitrogen in the different 
substances varies greatly in its value, depending on its 
availability : for instance, that in horn, hoof, and hair is 
worth not over ten cents per pound, while that from blood, 
castor-pomace, and cotton-seed meal is worth not far from 
eighteen cents. Note that there is no potash in the lime 
manures, phosphates, and phosphatic guanos. 

The following table is copied from an excellent little 
pamphlet on the cultivation of potatoes, issued by the 
Mapes Formula Company, 158 Friend Street, New York. 
It shows the value of the plant-food taken out of the soil 
by various crops. It is very valuable to us farmers, by 
enabling us to determine whether or not we are increas- 



114 



FERTILIZERS. 



ing the fertility of our soils. If the value of the phosphoric 
acid, potash, and nitrogen in the plant-food we apply is 
less than their value in the crop we take off, then we are 
robbing our land, and running down our farms, and vice 
versa. Take wheat, for an illustration. The value of these 
three elements in both stock and grain taken from the soil 
(assuming that one-half of the nitrogen is obtained from 
the air) is 34 cents per bushel, or |8.50 in a crop of 
twenty-five bushels. Now, whether we are improving or 
robbing our land turns on the fact of our having put on 
more or less than |8.50 in fertilizers, and in the proportion 
indicated by the analysis. 



ESTIMATES OF COST OF PLANT-FOOD IN CROPS. 

' The phosphoric acid and potash are figured at the full quantities contained in the 
crops; but the nitrogen is figured at one-half or less, assuming the balance to be fur- 
nished by the soil and atmosphere, which is iu accordance with the tendency of the 
results of modern scientific investigation. 

In practice, on many 6oils half-rations of potash are ample; but, in the case of the 
phosphoric acid, its deficiency in nearly all soils calls for full rations to be supplied from 
outside sources. 



( Nitrogen, \ 



Cents. 
0.625 lbs.® 21 4 c. perlb.,13.2S 



[ The natural proportion of 
straw . . . 150 lbs. 

f One bushel barley, 48 lbs. 

j 

| The natural proportion of 
straw ... 67 lbs. 

f One bushel rye . 56 lbs. 

j The natural proportion of 
i straw . . . 118 lbs. 

f One bushel oats, 32 lbs. 
i 

j 

] The natural proportion of 
straw ... 67 lbs. 

( One bushel shelled corn, 
56 lbs. 

i 

I The natural proportion of 
L stover ... 107 lbs. 



< Phosphoric acid, 


0.475 


11 


@ 


9 


(Potash. . . . 


0.320 


11 


@ 


4i 


( Nitrogen . . . 


0.360 


11 


@ 


2H 


{ Phosphoric acid, 


0.330 


" 


lit 


9 


( Potash .... 


0.945 


11 


I 


4} 


( Nitrogen, \ . . 


0.458 


11 


a 


214 


I Phosphoric acid, 


0.321 


it 


a 


9 


( Potash .... 


0.211 


it 


fi 


4 4 


( Nitrogen . . . 
\ Phosphoric acid, 
( Potash .... 


0.104 


11 


@ 


SU 


0.180 


[i 


@ 


9 


0.860 


it 


a 


44 


( Nitrogen, h . . 


0.500 


it 


a 


214 


1 Phosphoric acid, 


0.468 


11 


@ 


9 


{ Potash .... 


0.312 


(i 


a 


4i 


( Nitrogen . . . 


0.140 


11 


g 


214 


< Phosphoric acid, 


0.218 


11 


/< 


9 


( Potash .... 


0.906 


1 1 


@ 


44 


( Nitrogen, h . . 


0.306 


ii 


@ 


214 


< Phosphoric acid, 


0.200 


" 


<2 


9 


( Potash .... 


0.140 


ii 


a 


4i 


( Nitrogen . . . 


0.186 


ii 


S 


214 


j Phosphoric acid, 


0.126 


II 


a 


9 


( Potash .... 


0.593 


II 


® 


4 4 


( Nitrogen, 4 . . 


0.223 


II 


<S 


2I4 


■! Phosphoric acid, 


0.306 


CI 


@ 


9 


( Potash. . . . 


0.186 


II 


@ 


4J 


( Nitrogen . . . 


0.126 


II 


a 


214 


j Phosphoric acid, 


0.406 


II 


'<•' 


9 


( l'otash .... 


1.773 


II 


S 


4i 



0.79 



3.65 

7.50 



15 



4.26 ) 19 cts. 
1.36 
7.65 
2.97 
4.01 
9.56 

2.88 J 13 " 
0.89 
2.21 
1.62 
3.65 
10.62 
4.21 
1.36 
2.97 
1.96 
3.62 
6.49 
1.S0 
0.60 
3.95 
1.13 
2.50 
4.73 



16 



14 



FERTILIZERS. 



115 



One bushel potatoes (tu- 
bers) .... 60 lbs. 

One bushel buckwheat, 
48 lbs. 



T 



he natural proportion of 
(, straw ... 67 lbs. 

< One bushel onions, 50 lbs. 



Dry-leaf tobacco, 100 lbs. 



The natural proportion of 
stalk .... 87 lbs. 

Seed cotton (334 lbs. lint), 
1,000 lbs. 

One ton meadow hay . . 
One bushel pease, 60 lbs. 
One bushel beans, 62 lbs. 



(Nitrogen, \ . . 

} Phosphoric acid, 

( Potash .... 

? Nitrogen, \ . . 

\ Phosphoric acid, 

( Potash .... 
Nitrogen . . . 
Phosphoric acid, 
Potash .... 

i Nitrogen, \ . . 

< Phosphoric acid, 
( Potash .... 
( Nitrogen, \ . . 

< Phosphoric acid, 
( Potash .... 

Nitrogen . . . 
Phosphoric acid, 
Potash .... 
Nitrogen, ^ • 
Phosphoric acid, 
Potash .... 
Nitrogen, \ . . 
Phosphoric acid, 
Potash .... 

! Nitrogen, xV 
Phosphoric acid, 
Potash. . . . 

( Nitrogen, T V . 

< Phosphoric acid, 
( Potash .... 



0.097 lbs 

0.106 

0.336 

0.172 

0.273 

0.129 

0.216 

0.406 

1.613 

0.053 

0.077 

0.0S4 

1.944 

0.595 

5.634 

1.305 

1.186 

3.717 

2.583 

9.600 
11.066 
16.000 

8.200 
23.340 

0.179 

0.512 

0.588 

0.210 

0.734 

0.809 



<S 21 J c. 
@ 9 

@ n 

@ 2l| 

<a 9 

@ 4} 
@21| 
@ 9 
@ 41 
@21| 
@ 9 
3 4} 
@21| 
@ 9 
@ ±h 
@21| 
(g 9 
@ 4| 
@21i 
@ 9 
® 4^ 
@21J 
(g 9 
@ 4.1 
@21| 
(S 9 
@ H 
@21\ 
@ 9 
@ 4i 



per lb. 



Cents. 

2.06 

0.95 

1.32 

3.66 

2.45 

0.54 

4.59 

3.65 

6.85 

1.12 

0.69 

0.35 

41.31 

5.35 

23.94 

27.73 

10.67 

15.79 

54.S8 

86.40 

47.03 

3.18 

0.74 

99.19 

3.80 

4.50 

2.49 

4.46 

6.60 

3.63 



4 cts. 



15 



72 



54 



$1.89 



$1.0311 



11 cts. 



14 



A PLEA FOR MERCY. 

Though repeatedly urged to write this treatise by the 
Essex Comity Agricultural Society, I excused myself again 
and again, not only from a feeling of lacking ability to do 
the subject full justice, but also for the solid reason that it 
would bring down on my defenceless head a shower of cor- 
respondence asking advice and instruction on the many 
questions which will arise in individual experience ; for, on 
a subject so rich in its many phases, it would be impos- 
sible to write a work that would anticipate all matter in 
which its readers might like information. Now, it is the 
most natural thing in the world that my good friends 
should desire to ask these questions : I should were I in 
their place. But if they will please turn about, and put 
themselves in my place, and consider not only the time 
that would be required to perform the mere manual labor 
of answering such letters, but the thought and study that 



116 FERTILIZERS. 

would be necessary to give intelligent replies, I have no 
doubt but that they would unanimously concede to me the 
right to put in this plea for mercy. I suppose the able men 
at the head of our experimental stations will hardly thank 
me ; but I would, sotto voce, suggest to my friends, that, if 
questions must be asked, they switch the vast freight on to 
their track, and so send them to abler heads and freer hands 
than mine, — to those whose business it is to make such 
investigations as would supply the facts needed in the an- 
swering of this class of questions. Such as I may receive, I 
propose to pigeon-hole until some future time, when I may 
get out a book on barn manure and the various wastes 
used as manures (in which, living near great manufactur- 
ing centres, I have chanced to have a large experience), 
and, either in the body of such treatise or in its closing 
chapters, reply to my correspondents. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction 1 

Difference between Barn Manure and Commercial Fertilizers ... 6 

What is Barnyard Manure ? 8 

Humus 12 

Are Fertilizers but Stimulants ? 13 

Potash 16 

Wood Ashes 23 

Coal Ashes 29 

Cotton-Seed Hulls 29 

The Uses of Potash in Agriculture 30 

What is Nitrogen ? 34 

Where Nitrogen or Ammonia comes from 35 

How to Handle Fish- Waste, and the Best Way to Feed it to the Crops, 40 

Other Sources for Nitrogen 44 

Phosphoric Acid 54 

Bones, and where they come from 57 

Making our own Superphosphate 58 

Reduction of Unground Bone 64 

The Theories of Fertilizing 68 

Testing our Soils 72 

A Faith that is Dangerous ; Buying Cheap Fertilizers 74 

Making our own Fertilizers 77 

The Manufacturers of Fertilizers 78 

Leather-Waste 79 

Some Facts and Suggestions 81 

Fertilizing Ingredients in Raw Materials and Chemicals 84 

Commercial and Agricultural Values of Fertilizers 86 

Where to Obtain our Fertilizing Material at the Lowest Cost ... 86 

Formulas, and how to Compound them 90 

Formulas for Various Crops 91 

How to Compound our own Formulas 94 

Some Formulas as Compounded 96 

Condensation of Special and other Formulas 98 

How to Mix the Ingredients that enter into a Formula 101 

Applying Fertilizers 102 

The System of Manuring with Unleached Wood Ashes 103 

Fertilizers Excellent for Various Crops, and Suggestions .... 105 

Composts 108 

American Analyses of Composition of Fertilizing Materials . . Ill, 112 

Estimates of Cost of Plant-Food in Crops 114 

A Plea for Mercy 115 



AGRICULTURAL TREATISES 

WRITTEN BY J. J. H. GREGORY, MARBLEHEAD, MASS., 

SEED-GROWER AND SEED-DEALER. 



*** Single copies of either of the four following treatises sent by mail for 30 cents, 
or the four for $1. Seed-dealers and book-sellers supplied at the usual discount. 



ONION-RAISING: 

WHAT KINDS TO RAISE, AND THE WAY TO RAISE THEM. 

This work has gone through fifteen editions. It treats on onions raised 
from seed, potato onions, onion-sets, top onions, shallots, and rareripes; 
the onion maggot; rust; the merits of the different varieties of onions; 
instructions in seed-raising, and how to tell good seed, beginning with 
the selecting of the ground, and carrying the reader along, step by step, 
through the preparing of the soil, manuring, ploughing, planting, hoeing, 
weeding, gathering the crop, storing and marketing it, with a hundred 
minute details, embracing every department of the subject. Illustrated 
with thirteen engravings of onions, sowing-machines, and weeding- 
machines. 

SQUASHES, AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 

This treatise contains several illustrations, including a section of my 
squash-house, with full directions for erecting one. In plan it is very minute 
and thorough. Beginning with the selection of soil, it treats of the best 
way of preparing it; the best manures, and the way to apply them; plant- 
ing the seed; protecting the vines from bugs and maggots; the cultivation, 
gathering, storing, and marketing of the crops, — giving hundreds of 
minute details so valuable to inexperienced cultivators. 



CABBAGES, AND HOW TO RAISE THEM. 

This treatise begins with the selecting of the ground, and carries the 
reader along, step by step, through the preparing of the soil, manuring, 
ploughing, planting, hoeing, weeding, gathering the crop, storing and mar- 
keting it, with a hundred minute details, embracing every department of 
the subject. 

To prepare myself the more thoroughly to write on this work, I experi- 
mented on foreign and native varieties of cabbage for four years, raising 
not far from seventy kinds. It is illustrated by several fine engravings. 
I have added a paragraph on the green worm, that is causing so much 
trouble in some localities. 

CARROTS, MANGOLD WURTZELS, AND SUGAR 

BEETS : 

WHAT KINDS TO RAISE, HOW TO GROW THEM, AND HOW 

TO FEED THEM. 

In writing this treatise, I have endeavored to give that minuteness of 
detail in every step of progress, from the seed to the matured crop, that is 
generally desired by the public. While this work is more particularly 
intended for persons of limited experience, yet it gathers up so much of 
experience and observation, covering so much ground in the growing and 
handling of these two standard crops, that 1 should be disappointed if 
about every grower did not find within its covers some facts of more value 
to him than the cost of the book. 



